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By James West and Claire O'Connor
midasletter.com

From the standpoint of wealth and vastly untapped land area, Quebec is a remarkable exploration destination. The mining friendly province has been rated the number one place in the world to explore by the Fraser Institute with roughly 30 mines, 158 exploration firms and 15 primary processing industries.

One of those 158 exploration firms is Rockland Minerals (TSX Venture: RL). A brand new company, Rockland has aggressive plans in place to make the most of Quebec's largely unexplored gold and group metals regions with its two drill ready properties; the Schefferville Gold project and the Retty Lake copper-nickel-platinum project.

Rockland and Ernie Black

In June 2010 Rockland Mineral's shares began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange. The successful Initial Public Offering put $1 million in the company's coffers. Rockland has only 16.2 million shares outstanding, a market cap of less than $3 million and 34% insider ownership. They completed a recent $500,000 financing that will be primarily used for exploration and development efforts on the Schefferville gold property this fall.

Both properties have been optioned from the legendary Ernie Black, P.Eng, P.Geo. With over 55 years experience in developing mines and making world-class mineral discoveries, Black's latest "win" was the development of his original Peppler Lake and Lamalee iron deposits which were taken over by Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines (TSX: CLM) in 2008. Black is now working with Rockland to make his next big discovery.

"Ernie is an important figure; a very distinguished mining engineer with years of experience," comments Rockland President and CEO Rav Mlait, "We put that out there because it's important to show that the properties have very good pedigree and that they originate from a gentleman who has actually made a discovery and has successfully progressed his properties. He's also one of our largest shareholders and a senior advisor to us."

Schefferville Options Agreements
Rockland originally optioned the Schefferville Gold property from Black in 2009. The option agreement allows Rockland to earn 100% interest by completing $1.3 million in property work expenditures over a five-year period.

On August 26th 2010 Rockland then entered into an option agreement with neighboring explorer Western Troy Capital Resources Inc. (TSXV: WRY) for 151 mineral claims covering over 7,400 hectares in the Schefferville gold area.

Under the terms of the Western Troy agreement, Rockland can acquire a 55% interest in the property by making cash payments totaling $60,000 and issuing an aggregate of 600,000 common shares over a three-year period, and by spending $800,000 in exploration on the property over a three-year period. There's also an option for the company to earn up to 70% interest by completing a bankable feasibility study.

"The reason we went with Western Troy was because they staked some very good ground themselves in the Schefferville gold play and had a number of historical showings," Mlait explains, "Most importantly they did a limited diamond drill program back in 2009, where they intersected significant polymetallic gold, lead, zinc and silver mineralization, which included 5.5 grams per tonne gold over a core length of 7.11 metres. This hole was located in the Arsene Block and, long story short; we're going to be following up in that area with our own drilling. So it was important for us to go ahead and pull the trigger on a deal to solidify and unify the gold camp under our banner. Now that we've done that, it's basically fast tracked our gold exploration plans for this particular area."

A short sampling program carried out by Rockland senior geologist George F.Sanders, P.Geo, on Schefferville's original gold claims this summer also played a substantial part in Rockland's decision to sign with Western Troy. Although the results are still in the lab, "what they saw there, they felt very good about, and that's why we went ahead and optioned the neighboring ground." Mlait states.

By way of the original Ernie Black agreement, and now the Western Troy agreement, Rockland has taken control of the Schefferville gold area and has consolidated groups of intermingled claims into one project.

The Schefferville Gold Project
The Schefferville Gold property is located in the Ashuanipi Metamorphic Complex, to the immediate west of the prolific Labrador Trough. In the heart of Quebec's iron producing region, initially discovered in the 1980's, Schefferville has remained largely unexplored for more than 20 years. Despite this, the property already has multiple drill targets identified and historical samples which assayed grades of between 1 gram per ton gold to 19 grams per ton gold.

Rockland geologists maintain that Schefferville has strikingly similar geology and geochemistry to the former producing Homestake mine in South Dakota, and the large Lupin banded iron formation gold deposit in Nunavut (formerly owned by Echo Bay Mines and now owned by Kinross (TSX: K)). The Homestake Mine has produced more than 38 million ounces of gold since 1876.

According to the company's geologists, "the strong arsenic-gold mineralization found on the Schefferville gold property in high-grade metamorphic rocks, overlooked by most companies since its discovery in the 1980s, is the last remaining strong arsenic-gold anomaly area in Québec that has not been seriously explored in this current metals cycle."

What now?
Rockland is moving quickly. A young company they may be, but they know a good thing when they see it. On September 15th Rockland signed a drill contract with Cartwright Drilling of Goose Bay, Newfoundland to drill 1500 meters of core holes. Drilling has now commenced on the property and regular updates will be provided.

"We're really excited about drilling on Schefferville gold property. We're in a terrific part of the world with world class infrastructure. We really believe that this could develop into a major gold area." Mlait comments.

Retty Lake - "Significant Upside"
Rockland's Retty Lake project is a drill ready copper-nickel-platinum group metals (Cu-Ni-PGM) exploration project that encompasses over 200 mineral claims in the Labrador Trough. The Retty Lake mineralization is analogous to that of the Raglan/Ungava district of Northern Québec where Xstrata (LSE: XTA) and others have world class mines.

Rockland controls the key land position in the Retty Lake camp, completely surrounding the historic Blue Lake massive sulfide lenses, which are widely reported in the Québec government literature to contain a total estimated resource (non 43-101 compliant) of 4 million tonnes at approximately 1% Copper, 0.5% Nickel and 1 g/t Platinum and Palladium, within four known mineral-bearing lenses. These Blue Lake sulfide deposits are controlled by La Fosse Platinum Group Inc., a private company.

On trend to the northwest is another lens reported in the Québec literature as the "Retty Lake Deposit." Its location is shown on government maps within Rockland's claims immediately adjacent to the La Fosse ground. Recent field work lends credence to the presence of this mineralization. A cache of 192 old aluminum core trays containing un-split drill core dating from the 1960's was discovered at the precise spot indicated in the old Government reports.

"Retty Lake is a property with significant upside potential," Mlait comments, "It was our qualifying transaction to go public. It's right near Schefferville, with great infrastructure nearby, and it's drill ready. We plan to drill Retty Lake in 2011. We're focusing on Schefferville gold property this fall, but Retty Lake is quite advanced with close to half a million dollars of exploration spent on it since 2001 by various operators. We are seeking out mineralized massive sulphide lenses with a very good chance of making a strike relatively early."

Rockland Management
Armed with two promising properties, signed drill contracts and finally listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, Rockland is ready to roll. Guiding the company to potential greatness is a management board of highly experienced professionals.

Amongst others, Senior Geologist and Director is George F. Sanders, P. Geo. Sanders obtained his Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in 1973 and obtained a Masters of Science in Geology at that same school in 1975. He worked for subsidiaries of Gold Fields PLC (NYSE: GFI) during the 1980's in Chile and Nevada, and was Exploration Manager for Canyon Resources in Argentina from 1993 to 1995.

President and CEO Rav Mlait, MBA has extensive experience in managing and raising capital for public and private companies. He holds an MBA from Royal Roads University in British Columbia and a BA (Economics) from Simon Fraser University. Mlait has worked with public companies listed on the TSX and TSX Venture exchange.

Quebec's Next Major Gold Play?
Rockland is a company we can expect to hear more from. Its Retty Lake project is immediately on-trend with some of the best base-metal discoveries in the southern Labrador Trough, and in the neighborhood of some of the most highly-valued iron-ore development projects in all of Canada in the Schefferville region.

The Schefferville Gold Property consists of mineral claims in the Ashuanipi Metamorphic Complex, originally staked by the Iron Ore Company of Canada, and geologically resembles some of the highest producing mines in North America.

With Retty Lake drilling planned for 2011, the company focus rests on the Schefferville gold property for now. Drilling has now started on the gold property and they are making waves in this relatively underexplored camp. With all of these recent moves, the company could indeed be part of Quebec's next major gold play.

Follow Rockland's progress at www.rocklandminerals.ca

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