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.

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."