Team Picture

Team Picture
Drilling Camp Rockland's Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGM Property, Labrador Trough, Quebec June 2011

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Rockland gets drill permits for July Drilling at Blue Lake

RL got its drill permits for the Blue Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd property, Labrador Trough, Quebec. The Company has mobilized fuel and supplies to its base camp in preparation for drilling commencing in early July.

The Blue Lake sulfide deposits are nickeliferous pyrrhotite ores, with a copper content twice that of nickel, containing significant platinum and palladium. The historical tonnage, established in 1989, was 4.03 Mt at 0.85% Cu, 0.52% Ni and 0.84 g/t platinum and palladium. The Blue Lake historical deposits are located within a Québec Special Mining lease BEP-93, one of five Special Mining leases optioned to Rockland from La Fosse Platinum Group. In addition to the Blue Lake property, Rockland controls, the Retty Lake, Jimmick, Chance Lake, Glance Lake, Fredrickson and Lac Aulneau properties, all in the southern Labrador Trough. The Blue Lake area is ideally located as a positive mining destination, approximately 60 km from the town of Schefferville, Quebec which has its own airport and railhead. Rockland is systematically exploring this region and its goal is to discover mineralization, confirm and expand tonnage on its property holdings.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Brian Grant, P.Geo joins Rockland as Senior Advisor

Brian Grant, P.Geo has joined Rockland’s senior advisory team. Mr. Grant is the former President of Goldbrook Ventures Inc., a public company recently acquired by Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co. Ltd. Goldbrook's Cu-Ni-PGM deposits lie in the southern Raglan Belt of Québec's Ungava region, and are geologically very similar to Rockland's Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGM deposits.  Prior to this time, in the 1970's, Mr. Grant played a significant role as a member of the Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. team which discovered and developed the Cu-Ni-PGM deposits of the northern Raglan Belt.  These are producing mines today.

This is a great addition to the Rockland team for sure!

Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGM to be drilled in July

The Blue Lake, Cu-Ni-PGM historic resource located in the southern Labrador Trough, Quebec will be drilled in early July. Rockland's selected engineering firm, Caracle Creek Consulting, have been making good progress in compiling key data from over 550 holes drilled on the Cu-Ni-PGM showings at Blue Lake property since 1950s. The Blue Lake sulfide deposits are nickeliferous pyrrhotite ores, with a copper content twice that of nickel.  The historical tonnage, established in 1989, was 4.03 Mt at 0.85% Cu, 0.52% Ni and 0.84 g/t platinum and palladium.  Rockland's objective is to bring this mineralization into engineering compliance with National Instrument 43-101 in the shortest time possible.

A little bit of History:

The Blue Lake sulfides were discovered in 1942 by Hollinger North Shore Exploration Ltd, part of Iron Ore Company of Canada, and the first holes were drilled in the 1950's.  Hollinger drilled 39 holes in 1967 and 37 holes in 1968, and established the first resource for the property.  La Fosse Platinum Ltd. purchased Hollinger in 1985, and drilled an additional 400 holes.  This drilling nearly doubled the original Hollinger resource. The 1989 resource quoted above was based on hand generated block models completed before National Instrument 43-101.  The final work completed in 1989 was a 350 meter adit into the Blue Lake #1 lens to extract a 22-ton bulk metallurgical sample.  No work was done at Blue Lake since that time, until Rockland acquired an option on the project in November 2011.

The underground working at Blue Lake #1 gave new insight into the nature of the mineralization.  An internal report from 1989 states: "The average grade from channel sampling in the Blue Lake decline is about 20% higher than the Cu + Ni grade calculated from drill core analysis.  The decline also disclosed a layer of soft chloritic, material 2"-18" thick, at the base of the massive sulphide.  This material averages 0.12 g/t Pt and 6.02 g/t Pd (compared to 0.13 g/t Pt and 1.02 g/t Pd in the massive sulfide).  This layer was not suspected before the decline was driven, as it was not recovered in the core from most of the drill holes."
This report also stated: "Most of the tonnage that has been drill-indicated to date is within 500-feet of the surface.  It is reasonable to suggest that the reserves of massive sulphide in the Blue Lake area above the depth of 1,000-feet could reach 10 million tons.  The base metal content of the deposits discovered in the future will probably be in the grade range of the presently known deposits.  ...The most effective way to explore for massive sulphide is to drill fences of holes in the area where the sulphur-rich peridotite is close to the surface and shallow dipping."

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, states: "We're reading the comments and recommendations of the La Fosse geologists from two decades ago, and we're finding the next phases of drilling, underground sampling, and metallurgical testing to be already laid out for us.  The current metals cycle of high prices will support a robust development program at Blue Lake."

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Ernie Black, P.Eng, gets Ben F. Dickerson III Award from Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME)

February, 27, 2012 - Ernie Black, P.Eng, a senior advisor to Rockland Minerals, has been awarded the prestigious Ben F. Dickerson III Award by the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) at their Annual Meeting held recently in Seattle, WA. For many years Ben F. Dickerson III wrote the "News and Rumours from the Bush" column for Skillings Mining Review. The Award, established in 1987, recognizes professionalism and contributions to the mining industry. Mr. Black was particularly recognized for his consistent adherence to the highest ethical standards in the exploration business, and his life-long focus on mineral exploration.

Over the last 55 years, Mr. Black has worked domestically and internationally in mining and oil and gas exploration. Approximately 40 years of his career has been spent in corporate management, consulting and project development. Mr. Black is the founder of MPH Consulting Ltd. in Toronto and MPH Consulting Inc. in Denver, Colorado. Over the years, Mr. Black has served as an officer, director or technical advisor of a number of Canadian and American companies, and continues to actively consult for clients in the mineral industry. His extensive mining career started as a geologist with US Steel Corp's subsidiary, Quebec Cartier Mining Company from 1956 to 1963, and as a consultant from 1964 to 1970. Between 1964 and 1967 Mr. Black consulted for WGM on the Baffinland Iron deposits and Hematite Lake deposits. In 1967, Mr. Black also consulted to Expo Iron Mines Ltd. on the Mt. Laurier iron ore mine and facilities development plan. In 2004, Mr. Black optioned his Peppler Lake and Lamalee iron ore claims to Quinto Mining Corp. which dealt them to Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines in 2008. These properties are now being developed by Cliffs Natural Resources.

The Rockland team is very proud of Ernie and he deserves this special recognition!

Rockland hires Caracle Creek International Consulting Inc. (CCIC) for Blue Lake project

On February 22, 2012 Rockland hired Caracle Creek International Consulting Inc. (CCIC) to help create a 3-D exploration model on the Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGM historic resource located in the southern Labrador Trough, Quebec. The Blue Lake deposits have a total historical tonnage of 4.03 Mt at 0.85% Cu, 0.52% Ni and 0.84 g/t platinum and palladium. This is a non-43-101 compliant resource established by drilling in the 1960's and 1980's. Rockland is working to develop a current mineral resource at Blue Lake and develop additional tonnage through exploration in the Blue Lake camp.

The priority objective is to "see" the important sulphide lenses at Blue Lake for the first time in a modern block model. This model will begin the data verification process, and provide an exploration platform to expand the known mineralization, unlocking the potential of this historic property.
CCIC will assemble all available historical reports and produce plans and sections of the deposit which will then be used to outline future exploration, including outlining a drill program to verify and expand on the historical resources reported to exist on the property.

George F. Sanders: "The Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGM historic resource has close to 500 drill holes which Rockland is now compiling. Soon we will begin to visualize the Blue Lake massive sulfides in a modern context, along with the other Cu-Ni-PGM properties elsewhere in the Labrador Trough that came with the Blue Lake agreement. The historical data is looking good, and this new work will guide our drilling this coming summer."

Rockland adds Dr. James Mungall to team

On Feb 1, 2012 Rockland announced that Dr. James Mungall, P.Geo has been added a senior consultant.  Dr. Mungall occupies the Norman Keevil Chair of Ore Genesis at the University of Toronto and has published extensively on the magmatic sulfide deposits of the Sudbury and Raglan camps.  Jim is a practical field geologist who spends extensive time in the field with active junior mining exploration companies such as Rockland, and his experience in Québec's southern Raglan belt is directly applicable to promoting and expanding the known Cu-Ni-PGM historic resource base at Blue Lake.  Jim's widely sought-after expertise, and his broad experience, will guide the exploration for additional Cu-Ni-PGM resource discoveries in the camp.  Rockland controls many of the historic Hollinger North Shore Ltd. discoveries, including the: Glance, Chance, Alneau, Frederickson and Jimmick, all among the best mineral showings in the Labrador Trough.

Dr. Mungall was named Norman Keevil Chair of Ore Genesis at the University of Toronto in 2007.  He conducts research and offers consulting services in the field of magmatic ore deposits with an emphasis on Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide deposits and chromitite.  He has published extensively on the magmatic sulfide deposits of the Sudbury and Raglan camps and has edited four books or special journal issues on Ni-Cu-Co-PGE deposits.  Dr. Mungall served for a year as Chief Geologist of Noront Resources Ltd during the early stages of discovery and resource definition at their Eagle's Nest Ni-Cu-PGE, Thunderbird V-Ti-Fe, and Blackbird chromitite deposits.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Rockland (RL-TSXV) Increases Participating Interest on Schefferville Gold Property, Quebec

Jan 19, 2012, Rockland announces that it has increased its participating interest from 55% to 64% in the Schefferville Gold Property through its exploration activities on the property since completing earn-in on June 12, 2011. Rockland and Western Troy Capital Resources Inc., formed a joint venture on the property in June 2011 and Rockland subsequently carried out two field exploration programs on the Rusty Acres zone in July and September 2011.

To check out the Schefferville gold property please click here.
The joint venture agreement covers 199 claims staked over known gold showings originally discovered in the mid-1980's by Québec government geologists. They cover the highly prospective Arséne-Baleine Rouge and Rusty Acres areas. Rockland now holds a 64% interest and Western Troy holds a 36% interest in the property.

The Schefferville Gold property mineralization is believed to be hosted within and adjacent to thin, Algoma-type banded iron formations lying in a metasedimentary graywacke sequence which is now complexly folded and metamorphosed to the upper amphibolite to granulite facies. Rockland believes that these Archean-age iron-rich units trapped gold mineralization mobilized during devolitalization of sedimentary rocks, deep within the roots of an orogenic zone, and that the Ashuanipi arsenic-gold occurrences were formed near the brittle-ductile crustal transition, in the root zones of an Abitibi-type system as postulated by E.M. Cameron of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1989.

Gold mineralization was discovered relatively recently, in the mid-1980's, during Québec government regional lake-bottom geochemical surveys, and the area has only seen one cycle of exploration drilling. Based on Rockland drilling and field work to date, the company believes that the potential for several shallow open pit disseminated gold deposits exist.


Exploration highlights 
During fall 2010, Rockland completed a 1,525 meter diamond drilling program on the Schefferville Gold Property. Highlights from the drill program included 8.25 metres of 1.24 grams-per-tonne gold (including 1.20 m of 6.63 g/t Au) and 12.55 metres of 1.04 grams-per-tonne gold (including 1.10 m of 9.02 g/t au). These results, along with Western Troy's 2009 drilling, (in particular, hole WT09-04, which encountered 5.56 grams-per-tonne gold over a core length of 7.11 metres in the Baleine Rouge Central zone), confirm the presence of broad zones of near-surface disseminated gold mineralization.

During fall 2011, two sampling programs discovered widespread gold values, in the 4-12 grams-per-tonne gold range, in surface grab samples from iron-stained outcrops at the Rusty Acres zone. A lone grab sample from one of the mineralized areas at Rusty Acres returned a gold assay of 171 g/t Au, a value higher than anything previously reported in the literature and confirms the attractiveness of this target area. Pathfinder multi-element geochemical data from this high-grade sample shows iron, sulfur and arsenic contents typical of the gold-bearing Precambrian iron formations sampled so far in the district, plus highly anomalous pathfinders antimony and bismuth.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Rockland (RL-TSXV) Enters Agreement for Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGM Mining Lease, Labrador Trough, Quebec

On October 13, Rockland entered into a game changing deal for the Company and its shareholders. It entered into a deal with La Fosse Platinum Group Inc. ("La Fosse”) to option five separate mining leases including the Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGM “deposits” located in the heart of the Labrador Trough, Quebec.

The agreement covers special mining leases, originally granted to Hollinger North Shore Exploration Ltd. (“Hollinger”) within the province of Quebec. They include the Blue Lake, Jimmick, Chance Lake, Glance Lake, Fredrickson properties and the Lac Aulneau claim group in the Marymac area of the Labrador Trough. Historical information is being compiled on the various mining leases and claims and will be provided in a future announcement.

The Blue Lake “deposits” or “cluster” of disseminated Cu-Ni-PGE bearing sulphide lenses are well documented in various reports by government and independent geologists and have historical estimates as follows:
Zone
Reference
Tonnes
Copper %
Nickel %
Pt+Pd (g/t)
Blue Lake #1
(Clark 1994)
400,000
0.99
0.66
1.13
Blue Lake #2
(Clark 1994)
1,000,000
0.88
0.41
0.80
Centre
(Clark and Wares 2005)
1,390,000
0.77
0.59
0.90
Pogo
(Clark and Wares 2005)
1,240,000
0.96
0.49
0.71
Total
Weighted Average
4,030,000
0.85
0.52
0.84
(*All grades and tonnages presented in this press release are historical and are not NI 43-101 compliant)

The total historical tonnage and weighted average of these 4 main deposits, plus smaller lenses at Blue Lake is 4.03 Mt at 0.85% Cu, 0.52% Ni and 0.84 g/t Pt+Pd.

Key Benefits from Rockland – La Fosse Agreement
  • Allows Rockland to begin work towards a potential 43-101 compliant resource at Blue Lake.
  • Creates the opportunity to increase tonnage through down dip and step-out drilling at Blue Lake and make new discoveries along fertile horizon at neighboring Retty Lake property.
  • Rockland can begin analyzing important data generated from the Blue Lake #1 adit developed in 1985.
  • The five special mining leases present significant advantages in rapidly developing potential mineral resources.
  • Rockland will have access to Hollinger North Shore Exploration’s world-class exploration database.  
  • The Blue Lake lenses are well located, approximately 60 km from Schefferville, where rail and airport exist.
  • Rockland will control key mining leases in several areas throughout the Labrador Trough, making it one of the top regional players in this world-class area.
“The acquisition of these mining leases and claims in the Labrador Trough represents a major milestone for Rockland. The development of Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd assets near world-class infrastructure and in a mining-friendly jurisdiction like Quebec, presents a significant advantage. Investors have shown tremendous interest in Canadian projects that are on a path to development, an example being Prophecy Platinum’s Wellgreen PGM-Ni-Cu project. Rockland now has an opportunity to develop its own advanced mineral project starting with Blue Lake”.

Tags: Wellgreen PGM, Wellgreen Yukon, Prophecy Platinum Wellgreen, Wellgreen Ni-Cu-PGM, Blue Lake, Labrador Trough, Rockland Minerals, Yukon.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Rockland heads back to Schefferville Gold

In late September Rockland (RL-TSX V) started follow up field program to define drill targets and take further samples from Company’s Schefferville gold property, Quebec. Rockland recently reported widespread gold values in surface grab samples from iron-stained outcrops at the Rusty Acres zone. The results had several higher grade samples including 12.75 g/t Au, 4.94 g/t Au, 4.42 g/t Au, 3.64 g/t Au. In addition, a lone grab sample from one of the mineralized areas at Rusty Acres returned a gold assay of 171.5 g/t Au, a value higher than anything previously reported in the literature and confirms the attractiveness of this target area.  An updated map from the summer sampling program can be seen  here.

The program will be lead by George F. Sanders, Dr. Serge Chevé and Gennady Ivanov of IOS Services Geoscientifiques Inc. The goal of the program is to further understand the widespread gold occurrences in the Rusty Acres area.  The high resolution "draped" aeromagnetic survey flown in April, and the encouraging assay results from field work in July, now give a much better understanding of potential structures and controls for the gold mineralization. Rockland geologists will mark drill targets for a planned winter drill campaign using this new information.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Rockland samples 12.75 g/t Au at Schefferville Gold Property, Quebec

Rockland (RL-TSX V) announced today some impressive, widespread gold values in surface grab samples from iron-stained outcrops at the Rusty Acres zone on the Schefferville Gold Project, Quebec. The results had several higher grade samples including 12.75 g/t Au, 4.94 g/t Au, 4.42 g/t Au, 3.64 g/t Au. A lone grab sample from one of the mineralized areas at Rusty Acres returned a gold assay value higher than anything previously reported in the literature and confirms the attractiveness of this target area.

Map link
  
These grab samples were taken by Rockland geologists, and represent rock chips collected over an area sufficient to provide the best "representative" gold value for the rusty rock outcroppings. Out of a total of 324 grab samples from Rusty Acres, there were fourteen samples above one gram-per-tonne gold, mostly in the 3-4 g/t Au range. A total of 30 grab samples had in excess of one-half gram, and an impressive 116 grab samples had over one-tenth gram gold, highlighting the bulk tonnage potential throughout the Schefferville Gold Project. These new assay results and map can be seen on the Company website at www.rocklandminerals.ca.

Sample number #81790376 had 171.5 g/t Au confirmed by re-assay with gravimetric finish. This is significantly higher than the historical maximum gold values in the 15-20 g/t range previously reported from this property. Pathfinder multi-element geochemical data from this high-grade sample shows iron, sulfur and arsenic contents typical of the gold-bearing Precambrian iron formations sampled so far in the district, plus highly anomalous pathfinders antimony and bismuth.

George F. Sanders, P.Geo., a director of the Company, and qualified Person under NI 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release states: "Receipt of such a high fire-assay gold value is very exciting, and it shows where there's geochemical "smoke" there's fire. However, it doesn't change Rockland's focus on discovering more near-surface disseminated gold on the project. Drilling results on this property have proven that we can commonly expect meter-plus widths of 1-4 g/t Au, within wide envelopes of highly anomalous gold in excess of one tenth of a gram. This single high-grade sample, with its distinctive pathfinder geochemistry and probable free gold, is a game-changer for this district, and will shed light on the origin and distribution of the gold."

Rockland geologists will visit the Schefferville Gold Project with these results in-hand before the end of September to do follow-up sampling and to define drill targets.