Rapid Resource Development

Marathon Moves Quickly In Nfld and Idaho

By Ted Niles

In November 2010 Stillwater Mining Company TSX:SWC.U acquired Marathon PGM Corporation for its eponymous copper-palladium project in northwestern Ontario. The transaction earned Marathon PGM shareholders $118 million and saw the company’s remaining gold assets spun out into Marathon Gold Corporation TSX:MOZ. “Our background is rapid resource development,” says President and CEO Phillip Walford, “developing resources, then into reserves. We did that at Marathon PGM and, if anything, we’re doing it faster here.”

“Here” being the new company’s flagship Valentine Lake gold project, located 55 kilometres south of the town of Buchans, Newfoundland, which Marathon holds in 50/50 joint venture with Mountain Lake Resources Inc TSXV:MOA. Prior to Marathon, the property’s other joint venture partner was Richmont Mines Inc TSX:RIC. “Richmont looked at it from an underground mining point of view and basically walked on it,” Walford comments. “Then we came along and had a look. While Richmont was looking at Valentine from an underground-mining perspective, what I could see there was really, to start with anyway, an open pit. That was our concept, and it seems to be working.”

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