Among the highlights, Marathon intersected 49m at 6.17g/t gold, including 10m at 22.40g/t and 6m at 7.36g/t.
"The step-out drill hole VL-18-676 is the best intersection in the Sprite Zone so far and a fine start to the summer exploration program at the Valentine gold camp," president and CEO Phillip Walford said.
The company released a positive preliminary economic assessment for the project last month, which outlined a preproduction capex of US$380 million, average annual production of 188,500 ounces of gold over the first 10 years and a 2.8-year payback.
Walford said Marathon's current goal was to discover new gold deposits and increase the measured and indicated gold resources ahead of a prefeasibility study.
The project currently contains 2.137 million ounces of gold in four, near-surface deposits.
Shares in the company, which hit a 52-week low in early May of C85c, closed up 2.2% to 93c, valuing it at $137.2 million.
