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.

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.

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.

IOC : Huge Expansion in Mining Activity in the Labrador Trough Expected

Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) says that a new wave of expansion is taking shape in the Quebec-Labrador Trough iron-ore mining region based on the industry’s belief that global steelmaking demand will double within the next 15 to 20 years. IOC is a pioneer of the Quebec-Labrador iron-mining industry is the one of the original companies that worked on Rockland's Schefferville gold property in the Labrador Trough area. Read the entire Montreal Gazette story here.

Rockland News: Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGM Core Sampling Completed, Quebec

Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:RL) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that core samples from the 1,500 meter Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGE drilling program have been submitted to a commercial laboratory for precious metals fire assay and multi-element geochemical analysis. The core was carefully saw-cut, and a half-split was retained at the IOS Services Géoscientifiques facility in Chicoutimi, QC for detailed logging and petrographic studies. The precious metals fire assay procedure to be used for palladium and platinum will be a more robust one assay-ton (50g charge) to insure the most reliable and repeatable results.

Gold fire assay results and multi-element geochemical results are also awaited from Rockland's Schefferville Gold Project, where 367 surface rock chip samples were collected from the new Rusty Acres area during an early summer 2011 field program guided by a detailed 50 meter-spaced heli-mag survey flown in May 2011.

George 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: "We all share the anticipation of the Retty Lake drilling results. The drill core was flown from Retty Lake to the nearby town of Schefferville when the drill was de-mobed, but remained in the queue to be transported via rail to the port of Sept-Îles for quite awhile. The intense iron ore development in the Schefferville area is exciting, and better infrastructure favours advancement of Rockland's two exploration projects located very close to Schefferville. There will be bottlenecks here and there as the service sector matures, but the first look at the rock samples from both projects is very encouraging."

Labrador Trough News: Globex Mining gets iron ore property

Globex Mining (GMX -TSX) announced that it has signed an Option Agreement with Titan Iron Ore Corp wherein Titan may earn 100% interest in a Globex, Labrador trough area iron exploration property in Northern Quebec.   The property consists of 200 claims totaling approximately 22,635 acres and covers a 32 kilometer long magnetic anomaly which coincides with known showings of magnetite, an ore of iron. Entire press release here.

Prophecy Platinum's Wellgreen PGE-Ni-Cu property excites investors - good news for fellow explorers like Rockland

On July 14th, 2011 Prophecy Platinum (NKL-TSXV) announced their 43-101mineral resource estimate for its Wellgreen PGE-Ni-Cu property located in the Yukon Territory, Canada. Wellgreen deposit now contains a total inferred resource of 289.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.53 g/t platinum, 0.42 g/t palladium, 0.23 g/t gold (1.18 g/t PGM+Gold), 0.38% nickel, and 0.35% copper. Prophecy Platinum's stock moved form $0.77 cents to over $3.00! Rockland's Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGM property is much earlier stage project, however holds potential for the discovery of economically important massive and disseminated Cu-Ni-PGE bearing sulphide deposits in the heart of  the Labrador Trough.

Complete news release here. 

Labrador Trough News: New Millennium Drills Lac Ritchie

July 20, 2011 news release - New Millennium Iron Corp. has extended the current contract with George Downing Estate Drilling Ltd. of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge to add a third drill and include drilling of the taconite exploration targets at Lac Ritchie and Perault Lake.  The drill is in the process of mobilization. The collection of the KeMag Bulk sample is progressing well and the Contractor is expected to move its equipment from the KeMag deposit to Lac Ritchie before the end of July. NML estimates undertaking about 5,000 meters of drilling in those two targets....more news found here.

Rockland Gold and Cu-Ni-PGM Exploration Update Labrador Trough Area

News release, July 19, 2011, Rockland Minerals Corp. (RL-TSX Venture) has provided an update with regard to its exploration activities in Labrador Trough area of northeastern Quebec. So far during the current field season Rockland has drilled the Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGE (platinum group elements) property, and has flown a detailed heli-mag survey over the most promising portion of the Schefferville gold property to guide follow-up field mapping and sampling.

A total of 1,500 metres was drilled in the Northwest Retty Lake area with 10 holes that targeted known copper-nickel-platinum-palladium mineralization along a significant trend that is largely covered by Rockland claims. The target middle sill peridotite unit was intersected in all the holes, and significant disseminated chalcopyrite (copper mineral) was observed in broad zones of the host rock peridotite with highly favourable net texture of disseminated sulphides. The drill core was shipped via rail from Schefferville, Que., and has arrived at the core processing facility in Chicoutimi, Que. It is now being logged, saw cut and sampled, and assay results will be released as soon as possible after each batch of samples passes strict quality assurance/quality control protocols.

Follow-up fieldwork is now well under way on the northern block of Rockland Minerals Corp.'s Schefferville gold property, using recently flown data from a low-altitude draped heli-borne magnetometer survey on a 50-metre-spaced grid. The focus of Rockland's 2011 geological fieldwork is on the Rusty Acres area, which has never been drilled. Here, several clusters of plus-one-gram-per-tonne Au historic surface samples in outcropping rusty, iron-formations are seen on the compilation map. A total of 367 surface samples have been taken so far, and have been shipped for assay.

George Sanders, PGeo, a director of the company, is the qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release.

Schefferville News - First iron ore train in 30 years leaves Schefferville

The following is a story from Mining.com. Labrador Iron Mines (LIM-TSX) is working near Rockland Minerals (RL-V) in the Labrador Trough. This story exemplifies the tremendous mining infrastructure that has been developed and re-activated near Rockland's 2 exploration properties in NE Quebec.

Labrador Iron Mines has made significant strides towards the start-up of production at its Schefferville Area direct shipping iron ore project in western Labrador, near the town of Schefferville Quebec. On June 29, 2011 the first loaded iron ore train departed Silver Yards for the Port of Sept-Iles travelling over the TSH and QNS&L railways. This historic event is the first commercial iron ore train from the Schefferville area in almost 30 years. Production Commenced at James Mine and Silver Yards Plant...

Railroad
In February 2011, the Company signed a memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with Tshiuetin Rail Transportation Inc. (“TSH”) for the transportation of iron ore over the Menihek Division with an agreed tariff rate for calendar year 2011...

Port
LIM has signed a MOU with the Sept-Iles Port Authority for the use of the Pointe aux Basques terminal for handling and ship loading of LIM’s iron ore for the 2011 season and potentially beyond. LIM has also signed an agreement with a port terminal operator for the unloading, stacking and ship loading of iron ore at Pointe aux Basques. LIM will have exclusive use of the Pointe aux Basques terminal for iron ore shipments...

For the complete story to go Mining.com.

Schefferville news - Anglesey Mining: First commercial iron ore train leaves Schefferville, says LIM

Anglesey Mining's 33 percent owned Labrador Iron Mines (TSE:LIM) said that the first train carrying direct shipping ore left for port yesterday (June 29).

"This train represents the first commercial iron ore train movement from the Schefferville area in almost 30 years," said LIM today as it updated on operations and revealed full year results for the year to March 31 2011.

It comes after ore mining operations began at the James Mine earlier this month, where full scale mining is now in full swing.

Around 120,000 tonnes of iron ore have been stockpiled so far and mining will continue until November at a rate of around 15,000 tonnes of ore per day, said LIM.

The Silver Yards processing plant, expected to continue to operate through to November, has a planned initial processing rate of 6,000 tonnes per day, which will be incrementally increased to 10,000 tonnes per day.

LIM's Schefferville project envisages the development of 20 direct shipping iron ore deposits in western Labrador and north-eastern Quebec near Schefferville, Quebec.

It is estimated that around 2.5 million tonnes of ore will be mined from the James Mine during the current financial year and, subject to weather, around one million tonnes of saleable product will be railed to the Port of Sept-Iles. Link to full news story here.

Rockland (RL-TSXV) Starts Summer Exploration at Schefferville Gold Property, Quebec

For Immediate Release. Vancouver, British Columbia, June 30, 2011: Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture: RL) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce that follow-up field work is underway on the northern block of the Schefferville Gold Property, using recently flown data from a low altitude (10 meter altitude, 2.5 meter sampling rate) "draped" heli-borne magnetometer survey on a 50-meter spaced grid, flown by Novatem Inc.  New maps can be viewed at the Company’s website at www.rocklandminerals.ca

The Schefferville Gold Project lies within the 2.7 Ga Ashuanipi Metamorphic Province (2.7 Ga) of the Archean-age Superior Craton.  In the mid-1980's Québec government regional lake-bottom geochemical surveys revealed strong arsenic-gold geochemical anomalies northwest of Schefferville.  The old-timers, panning the creeks in the region, had not seen "colour" in their gold pans, due to the atomic-scale dissemination of gold within arsenopyrite.  Weathering of the Ashuanipi gold mineralization simply did not create nuggets at the earth's surface, and this mineralization lay undiscovered.  Only one wave of exploration followed the government discovery, in the late 1980's, and consisted of channel sampling, and a few shallow drill holes by Québec juniors VIOR-Mazarin, and by IOC. VIOR-Mazarin reported +1 g/t Au diamond drill intercepts at the Arséne in the northern block, and at Lac Lilois in the southern block.  The first focus of Rockland's 2011 geological field work is on a new area, the Rusty Acres, which has never been drilled.  Here, several clusters of +1 g/t Au historic surface samples in outcropping rusty, iron-formations are seen on the compilation map.

Rockland controls the best prospects in the district by first optioning 100% of E.D. Black's Ashuanipi Claims (southern block) and by earning a 55% interest in the Schefferville Gold Project claims, in both the northern and southern blocks, with Joint Venture partner Western Troy Capital Resources Inc. (45%) (TSX Venture: WRY).  

Rockland drilled 1,500 meters in September 2010 based on positive drill results obtained by Western Troy in 2009.  Within broad intercepts of anomalous low-grade gold mineralization with visible arsenopyrite, a significant number of "sweet spots" of multi-gram gold values were encountered over 1-2 meter core sampling intervals.  These higher grade intervals can be averaged with all the rest of the anomalous gold values because there are no quartz veins, no "nuggety" free gold, and no sharp assay boundaries.  This gives rise to the expectation of finding significant tonnages of near-surface, low-grade gold mineralization on the Schefferville Gold Project.  The assay results, and a graphical illustration of gold assay intervals, can be seen on the Company website at www.rocklandminerals.ca.  

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release, states: "The strength of our mapping program this summer lies in the calibre of the geological consultants on the Rockland team -- Dr. Serge Chevé, Independent Consultant, and Réjean Girard, and Gennady Ivanov of IOS Services Geoscientifiques Inc. The first look at the raw airborne magnetic data shows just how useful it will be to the ground mapping."

An additional, more detailed write-up accompanying the first new field map of the 2011 season is posted on the Rockland website www.rocklandminerals.ca. 

Pictures: Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGE Drill Core and Write up

Must see new pictures of Rockland's Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGE drill core and a technical write-up comparing the rocks to the Ungava southern mineral belt. See pictures at http://bit.ly/mjfwQr . Assay results are in process.

Rockland Completes Drilling at Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGE, Quebec

For Immediate Release. Vancouver, British Columbia, June 22, 2011: Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture: RL) (the “Company”) has completed its 1,500 meter diamond drilling program on the Retty Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd Property located near Schefferville, Quebec.  A total of 10 holes were drilled to explore for zones of disseminated and massive sulfide within the targeted middle peridotite sill in the NW Retty Lake area.  The core is being shipped off site to a core processing facility to be saw cut and sampled. 

Photographs of Retty Lake drill core textures and a brief geological write-up have been posted on Rockland's website at www.rocklandminerals.ca.

Initial logging of the core has revealed widespread disseminated sulfide mineralization with visible chalcopyrite (copper mineral) within the lower portion of the middle peridotite sill.  In several instances, favourable "net-texture" sulfides were observed to be crystallized within cumulate-texture peridotite.  Two drill holes found an unexpected rock type in place of the middle peridotite horizon.  Instead of the ultramafic peridotite, there was a melanocratic gabbro, which indicates assimilation of the wall rock by the peridotite intrusion.  This typically happens adjacent to feeder dykes, and suggests they may be nearby, although they have never been described at Retty Lake.  Mineralization was also drilled in the upper sill, in addition to the widespread disseminated mineralization found in the middle sill.  This confirms the presence of "stacked" mineralization at Retty Lake. 

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release, states: “We see highly encouraging disseminated sulfide textures in hand samples of the drill core from the Retty Lake Project, and we're only in the beginning stages of unlocking the copper-nickel-platinum-palladium potential of this district.  Because this is the first drill core to come from this area since the 1950's, we plan on doing a careful, thorough job of sawing, splitting and sampling the core."

Photographs of Retty Lake drill core textures and a brief geological write-up have been posted on Rockland's website at www.rocklandminerals.ca.

The Retty Lake property is on-trend with four adjacent copper-nickel-platinum group metal (PGM) lenses known as the “Blue Lake Deposits” -- originally outlined by Hollinger North Shore Exploration (Iron Ore Company of Canada) in the 1950's. Evidently, the Blue Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd deposits were formed at or near the basal zone of the ("Middle") ultramafic peridotite, where the sill intrudes sulfur-rich metasediments.  This favourable stratabound horizon runs for some ten kilometers or more, throughout the Rockland property, in a northwest-southeast trajectory. Rockland is looking forward to discovery of additional base metal - precious deposits within its Retty Lake property.  Rockland is earning a 100% interest in the property from E.D. Black, Geologist.

Labrador Trough News: New Millennium Iron name change

Rockland's neighbor in the Labrador Trough has a new name. New Millennium Capital Corp. as of June 15, 2011, will now be known as New Millennium Iron Corp.  

Rockland Completes Earn-In on Schefferville Gold Property

On June 15th, Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX VENTURE:RL) announced that it has vested its 55% interest in the Schefferville Gold Property, under the September 29^th, 2010 Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Western Troy Capital Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:WRY). Under the option agreement, Rockland acquired its 55% interest in the Property by completing $800,000 in exploration work, including a 1,525 meter drilling program last Sept-Oct and a detailed Heli-Mag survey in May. Rockland has also made cash payments totaling $60,000 and has issued 600,000 common shares to complete the earn-in.

The option 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 and many claims contiguous and intermingled with Rockland's Ashuanipi gold claims, optioned from E.D. Black, where Rockland is earning a 100% interest.

During the fall of 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. All Schefferville Gold Project information can be reviewed at www.rocklandminerals.ca.

In early 2011, Rockland began the work of compiling past exploration data on the property to help project and follow the broad zones of anomalous gold values defined in the fall 2010 drilling, and find more of the high grade gold occurrences known to occur within these disseminated gold zones. In May, Rockland launched a detailed, low-altitude, helicopter-borne magnetic survey over the Arséne and Rusty Acres zones flown by Novatem Inc of Mont-Saint-Hilaire QC. Results of the heli-mag survey will be released as soon as the data has been interpreted, and the Company will announce its next phase of exploration soon.

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release, states: "Drilling by Rockland has demonstrated the presence of multiple, broad gold zones extending from the Arséne to the Baleine Rouge drilling areas - a N-S distance of more than 1.2 kilometers - containing a number of higher-grade 'sweet spots'. The focus will be on the gold zones in the Arséne-Baleine Rouge area, and on the numerous plus-1-gram surface gold anomalies the Rusty Acres area which have never been drilled." 

Rav Mlait, President of Rockland states, "Completing our earn-in has helped us consolidate the numerous gold occurrences in Schefferville gold area. Rockland will continue building on the very encouraging gold drill results to date."

Labrador Trough News: Adriana drilling Lac Otelnuk

Adriana recommenced diamond drilling on the Lac Otelnuk property on May 12 as part of its 2011 exploration program to increase and upgrade mineral resources on its Lac Otelnuk world-class iron deposit located in the Labrador trough, Nunavik, Quebec. A drill program of 113 BQ holes totalling approximately 16,000 metres is planned for 2011 including the completion of infill holes on the South zone of the deposit to upgrade indicated resources to the measured category, delineation drilling on the North zone of the deposit where most of the drilling was carried out in the 1970s and wide-spaced exploration drilling to test other undrilled targets. In addition, a yet-to-be-determined number of large-diameter (PQ) holes are proposed to collect bulk samples for metallurgical grindability testing.

See rest of the news release here. 

Schefferville news - LIM Signs Impact Benefits Agreement With Innu Matimekush-Lac John

Rockland (RL-TSXV) neighbor, Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Ltd. has signed a landmark impact benefits agreement with the Nation Innu Matimekush-Lac John (MLJ) of Schefferville, Que., with regard to LIM's Schefferville area direct shipping iron ore mining projects in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the province of Quebec.

The historic life-of-mine agreement, which was approved by resolution of the band council of Matimekush-Lac John, signed by the chief and band council, and endorsed by community referendum, recognizes that LIM and MLJ wish to work together to establish a long-term, co-operative, respectful and mutually beneficial positive relationship, based on confidence, trust and certainty.

Under the IBA, LIM has agreed to the equitable participation of the Innu Matimekush-Lac John in its Schefferville area projects through employment, training, contract opportunities and financial benefits, including some community infrastructure projects, and has agreed to take certain social and environmental protection measures to mitigate the impact of the projects on MLJ families and traditional activities.
MLJ, by entering into this agreement, has given its consent to the company's iron ore projects proceeding in accordance with the agreement, and has agreed to provide LIM continuing and unobstructed access to, and quiet enjoyment of the iron ore projects and its properties.

The complete news release can be found here.

What are net-texture sulphides?

Rockland Minerals (TSX Venture: RL) recently provided an update on its drilling program at the Retty Lake copper-nickel-platinum-palladium property, in Quebec. In particular, Rockland mentioned observing very encouraging "net-textured" sulphides in this news release.

To provide a bit more insight into "net-textured" sulphides I have posted some info from Wiki-pedia.


"The morphology of Kambalda-type Ni-Cu-PGE deposits is distinctive because the nickel sulfide can be shown to be associated with the floor of a komatiite lava flow, concentrated within a zone of highest flow in the lava channel facies.

The lava channel is typically recognised within a komatiite sequence by;

• Thickening of the basal flow of the komatiite sequence
• Increased MgO, Ni, Cu, and concomitant decrease in Zn, Cr, Fe, Ti as compared to 'flanking flows'
• A 'sediment free window' where sediment has been scoured or melted from the basal or footwall contact of the komatiite with the underlying substrate
• A trough morphology, which is recognisable by a reentrant flat and steep-sided embayment in the footwall underlying thickest cumulate piles

The ore zone typically consists, from the base upwards, of a zone of massive sulfides, matrix sulfides, net-textured ore, disseminated and cloud sulfide."

Wiki goes on to say ....

"The massive sulfide is in some cases overlain by a zone of matrix sulfide. The ideal Kambalda type-section lacks matrix sulfides, which is interpreted to be because of either physical remobilisation, or because matrix ore will only form in quiescent magma conditions, and thus does not form in active channel zones except, perhaps, late in the eruption. However, most other komatiitic nickel ore sections contain matrix to net-textured ore.

Matrix sulfide ore, in high-grade metamorphic areas, is characterised by jackstraw texture, composed of bladed to acicular metamorphic olivine which resembles spinifex textured olivines, within a matrix of nickel sulfide. This texture is formed by metamorphism of the ore, which is interpreted to have been composed of olivine crystals floating in massive sulfide.

Net-textured ore is rarely observed, being the ideal condition of sulfide-silicate immiscibility. This texture is difficult to prove from the majority of komatiite mineralisation profiles, but is known from the Jinchuan intrusive, China, where nickel sulfide forms a network textured groundmass liquid in which olivine floats. Most net-textured ores in komatiites are considered metamorphic overprints.

Disseminated sulfide zones occasionally overly the matrix sulfide zone, grading upwards into barren ultramafic olivine adcumulate. These zones are rarely economic to mine in the majority of komatiites, except when close to surface."

Raglan to Labrador Trough Presentation

Presentation by Rockland Minerals comparing the southern Raglan mineral belt and the rocks in the Labrador Trough, where Rockland has its Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGM project (presentation here.) The Raglan Mine is a large nickel mining complex in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, Canada.  It is owned and operated by Toronto, Ontario based Xstrata Nickel (formerly Falconbridge Ltd.), a division of Swiss-based Xstrata plc.

Gold at $1600 / oz?

Gold prices could reach US$1,600 an ounce by the end of next year, AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), the world's third-largest producer, has told Reuters.

'We think the direction for gold looks like it could continue to be quite strong on the upside,' said at the Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit.

'You could say we should breach US$1,500 next year and we use (an increase of) about US$100 an ounce a year on the supply side to give a sense of where the market goes over the long term,' he said.

'Basically I'm saying towards the end of next year, we should hit US$1,600 based on those numbers.'

The metal hit a record high of US$1,440.40 an ounce on March 7, supported by its status as a safe haven from risk and inflation as unrest in the Middle East has spurred oil prices higher. Japan's nuclear crisis has also supported prices.

The metal held steady last Thursday, March 17, as it drew support from the spreading turmoil in the Middle East and talk of extended loose U.S. monetary policy after lackluster home sales data.

Continued fighting in Libya, where western forces have failed to dislodge Muammar Gaddafi's armour, calls for the ouster of Yemen's president and Palestinian rocket strikes on Israel that have heightened geo-political uncertainties in the region.

'Gold is expected to remain firm, as there is a lot of geopolitical uncertainty and money printing going on,' said a Singapore-based trader, referring to the looser monetary policy adopted by Japan's central bank after the earthquake hit nearly two weeks ago.

'But there is strong resistance at US$1,440/US$1,445 level, so we'd need a good headline to break through,' he added.

Rockland Drills "Net-Texture" Sulfides in Ultramafic Rocks at Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGE, Québec

For Immediate Release. Vancouver, British Columbia, May 31, 2011: Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture: RL) (the “Company”) has intersected several zones of disseminated sulfides within the targeted middle peridotite sill being drilled on the Retty Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd Property.  In diamond drill hole number 849-05, drilled near the "Lac Retty Ouest" showing, Rockland geologists have observed very encouraging "net-textured" disseminated pyrrhotite and visible chalcopyrite (copper mineral) within a 14-meter basal zone of cumulate-texture ultramafic peridotite.  Rockland is currently half way through a planned 1,500 meter program, which commenced on May 15th, 2011.  After all drilling is complete, assaying of the mineralized core will begin.

Hole 849-03 encountered 60 meters of disseminated pyrrhotite with visible chalcopyrite -- in coarse cumulate- textured peridotite -- at the Lost Lake showing.  All of the drilling so far has intersected zones of layered massive sulfide and cross-cutting sulfide, within black shales.   These metamorphosed sediments at Retty Lake are intruded by mafic gabbros and ultramafic peridotites, in a setting very similar to the southern Raglan Cu-Ni-PGE mineralized belt in Québec's Ungava region to the north.
Upon completion of the drill program Rockland plans to transport the Retty core to the IOS Services Geoscientifiques Inc.  processing facility where Rockland's geotechs will split and select mineralized segments for assaying. Assay results will be made available as completed.

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release, states: "Our Retty Lake drilling program is progressing very well.  The 'net textured' disseminated sulfides within the lower portion of the middle peridotite sill are guides to discovery of more massive sulfide lenses, similar to the adjacent Blue Lake Cu-Ni-PGE cluster.  We have chosen to transport the drill core offsite for more precise logging, sawing and sampling.  This is the first drilling in this area since the 1960's, and Rockland intends to process it thoroughly, to unlock the Cu-Ni-PGE potential of these deposits.  Sample shipments and assaying will be expedited, and results will be released a soon as possible."

The Retty Lake property is on-trend with four adjacent copper-nickel-platinum group metal (PGM) lenses known as the “Blue Lake Deposits” -- originally outlined by Hollinger North Shore Exploration (Iron Ore Company of Canada) in the 1950's. Evidently, the Blue Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd deposits were formed at or near the basal zone of the ("Middle") ultramafic peridotite, where the sill intrudes sulfur-rich metasediments.  This favourable stratabound horizon runs for some ten kilometers or more, throughout the Rockland property, in a northwest-southeast trajectory. Rockland is looking forward to discovery of additional base metal - precious deposits within its Retty Lake property.  Rockland is earning a 100% interest in the property from E.D. Black, Geologist.

Rockland Launches Detailed Heli-Mag Airborne Survey at Schefferville Gold, Québec

For Immediate Release. Vancouver, British Columbia, May 5, 2011: Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture: RL) (the “Company”) is pleased to report that a detailed low altitude, helicopter-borne magnetic survey has commenced over the Company’s Schefferville Gold property, Québec.  The survey is being flown by Novatem Inc. of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Québec and will cover approximately 1,045 line-kilometers.
The focus of the survey will be the northern claim blocks, specifically the Arséne and Rusty Acres areas.  It is here that Rockland geologists have identified the best discovery potential for a near-surface, disseminated gold deposit.

Flight lines for this detailed survey will be flown at 50-meter spacing.  This is Novatem's specialty geophysical survey product, with an exceptionally tight terrain drape and sampling rate.   The data will be processed in-house by IOS Services Geoscientifiques Inc. of Chicoutimi, Québec in support of the IOS detailed structural mapping program to be carried out in the early summer on the Arséne and Rusty Acres blocks.
Pictures of the Novatem survey aircraft and the Rockland claims to be flown can be seen at our website. www.rocklandminerals.ca

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release, states: "Recent drilling by Rockland has demonstrated the presence of multiple, broad gold zones extending from the Arséne to theBaleine Rouge drilling areas -- , a N-S distance of more than 1.2 kilometers -- containing a number of higher-grade 'sweet spots'.  Early this summer, IOS will generate drill targets by carrying out a geological mapping program of the heart of the Schefferville Gold Project, aided by the Novatem detailed heli-borne mag survey.  The focus will be on the gold zones in the Arséne--Baleine Rouge area, and on the numerous plus-1-gram surface gold anomalies the Rusty Acres area which have never been drilled." 

We seek Safe Harbor.

Rockland Minerals Provides Retty Lake Cu-Ni-PGM Project Update

April 19, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada – Rockland Minerals Corp. (The “Company” or “Rockland”), (TSX.V: RL) is pleased to provide an update on its ongoing preparation for drilling at its Retty Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd Property, northwest of Schefferville, Québec. Rockland has completed its fuel purchase order of Diesel and Jet-A for the 2011 program. Rockland recently announced that it had signed a drill contract with Cartwright Drilling of Goose Bay, Labrador to drill a minimum of 1,500 meters, of core holes at the Retty Lake for late May. The fuel barrels will now be flown to the Retty Lake area from Schefferville. Rockland has selected Air Saguenay of Jonquière, QC , for its fixed wing air capability and sourcing of the fuel.  Rockland is working with its turn-key service provider, IOS Services Geoscientifiques Inc. (“IOS”) of Chicoutimi, Québec, to finalize the Retty Lake project logistics.

The Retty Lake property is on-trend with four known adjacent copper-nickel-platinum group metals (PGM) lenses known as the “Blue Lake Deposits” originally outlined by Hollinger North Shore Exploration in the 1950's. The Blue Lake Cu-Ni-Pt-Pd deposits were formed at or near the basal zone of a ultramafic peridotite sill, where it was intruded sulfur-rich metasediments.  This favourable horizon runs through the Rockland property in a northwest trajectory and Rockland is looking to discover additional lenses on the Retty Lake property. 

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release.

Rockland Drill Results Show Widespread Disseminated Gold Mineralization, Schefferville Gold Property, Québec

Vancouver, British Columbia, January 11, 2011 - Rockland Minerals Corp. (TSX.V: RL) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce that all assays have been received from its Fall 2010 diamond drill program at the Schefferville Gold Project, Québec.  These results are highly encouraging and point to the presence of widespread gold mineralization on the property that could possibly be amenable to bulk tonnage exploitation from the surface.  Rockland recently completed a 1,525 meter, 12 hole diamond drill program during the fall of 2010, and Western Troy carried out an 800 metre, 8 hole diamond drilling program during the summer of 2009.  Data from both drilling campaigns has been integrated into a master database which now can be downloaded from the Rockland website (www.rocklandminerals.ca). The integrated database was developed to show the broad gold mineralization discovered from both initial programs.


The drilling took place on the Arséne block.  This was one of the most prospective areas discovered in the mid-1980's through sophisticated lake-bottom geochemical surveys in support of mineral exploration and development done by the Québec government.  Gold mineralization in this area had lain hidden until the mid-80’s because its finely disseminated nature did not favour development of placer gold nuggets at the surface.  Rockland is earning a 55% interest in 10 claim blocks optioned from Western Troy Capital Resources Inc. which, in many places, are contiguous and intermingled with Rockland’s original gold claims, optioned from E.D. Black, where Rockland is earning a 100% interest.

The holes are scattered over a zone that stretches more than 2 kilometres north-south.  The results are tabulated below in two groups -- Group 1-- Highest Gold Assay Values, and Group 2 -- Longest Gold Intercepts:

Table 1--Highest Gold Values Rockland/Western Troy--2009-2010*	Table 2--Longest Anomalous Gold Intercepts Rockland/Western Troy--2009-2010*
Hole starting from intercept length Au Number (metres) (metres) g/t WT09-04 53.85 m 2.03 metres 10.21 g/t Au RL10-17 57.30 m 1.10 metres 9.92 g/t Au RL10-17 11.45 m 1.20 metres 6.63 g/t Au WT09-04 57.91 m 2.02 metres 5.93 g/t Au WT09-02 25.40 m 1.01 metres 2.43 g/t Au RL10-13 146.50 m 4.80 metres 1.03 g/t Au RL10-16 113.50 m 1.00 metres 1.09 g/t Au WT09-03 5.79 m 1.92 metres 1.21 g/t Au	Hole starting from intercept length Au Number (metres) (metres) g/t WT09-04 40.39 m 19.50 metres 2.23 g/t Au RL10-17 11.45 m 8.25 metres 1.24 g/t Au RL10-17 49.70 m 12.55 metres 1.05 g/t Au WT09-02 22.35 m 3.04 metres 0.957 g/t Au RL10-13 145.30 m 9.50 metres 0.611 g/t Au RL10-18 9.40 m 4.38 metres 0.285 g/t Au WT09-05 44.20 m 21.81 metres 0.227 g/t Au RL10-18 35.43 m 6.50 metres 0.223 g/t Au RL10-10 101.48 m 16.02 metres 0.202 g/t Au WT09-06 30.47 m 10.10 metres 0.153 g/t Au WT09-03 4.57 m 6.58 metres 0.145 g/t Au RL10-14 33.55 m 17.30 metres 0.136 g/t Au WT09-04 25.38 m 9.09 metres 0.117 g/t Au WT09-06 44.70 m 21.26 metres 0.094 g/t Au

* Note: this is an area of complex structural geology.  In all cases, sample
lengths shown here are core lengths only, and not necessarily true lengths.

Two files can be downloaded from the Rockland website (http://www.rocklandminerals.ca/Project_Schefferville_Gold_Property.php) showing graphical illustrations of the truly disseminated nature of the gold within these broad intercepts.  Rockland believes that these broad envelopes of consistently anomalous gold values found in the recent drilling campaigns (Table 2) are pointing to the presence of a bulk mineable, disseminated gold deposit on the Arséne block.  Supporting this conclusion are the "sweet spots" of higher grade gold mineralization within these anomalous gold zones (Table 1).  Rockland believes that continued exploration will expand these zones of higher grade, and that many of the low-grade envelopes discovered in the drilling are within typical cutoff grades being used worldwide for open pit gold deposits. 

George F. Sanders, P.Geo, a director of the Company, and the Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 responsible for the technical content of this news release, states: "Our drilling assays confirm the truly disseminated nature of this gold mineralization, and its near-surface bulk tonnage mining potential.   It is very important to emphasize that there are absolutely no quartz veins anywhere on the Schefferville Gold Project. We will now embark on a detailed structural analysis of a very specific area using the data already collected, and we will develop new drill targets in a very short time frame to chase these broad gold envelopes, and find the higher gold grades that we now know to exist."

Rav Mlait, President and CEO, states: "We are excited about the gold results from our first phase drilling on the Schefferville Gold property. Our 2010 surface sampling program discovered wide-spread gold on several additional zones which also require follow up. We will now turn our attention to generating drill targets for the next phase of our exploration program in 2011. Rockland will be very active on both of our Quebec projects in 2011."