CSE: RKL
Rockland’s permitted, drill-ready Beryllium Butte Project is located in Juab County, Utah, 185 km south-west of Salt Lake City. The project is prospective for beryllium mineralization hosted in claystone volcanic tuff breccia units, and located only 30km west of Materion Corp.’s (NYSE: MTRN) currently producing Spor Mountain Mine.
Beryllium on the Beryllium Butte Project occurs as the mineral bertrandite, which is also mined from the Materion’s open-pit operations.
Bertrandite is the most important commercial beryllium mineral, found in over 75% of beryllium mining operations and extracted from ores containing 0.3-1.5% beryllium. At Materion’s Spor Mountain Mine and on Rockland’s Beryllium Butte project, bertrandite is found replacing layers and lenses within rhyolite flows and tuffs and associated fault breccias that exhibit extensive argillic alteration.
The Saddle Target is interpreted to have strong similarities with the Miocene Spor Mountain Formation that hosts beryllium deposits currently in production at the Spor Mountain Mine. The prospective beryllium-bearing tuff breccia unit has a limited subcrop / outcrop exposure, measuring 60 by 75 metres, overlain by alluvium/colluvium cover to the west, and younger volcanic tuffs to the north and east. Associated values of rubidium and cesium are strongly anomalous in the Saddle Target area and are useful pathfinder metals for beryllium.
Initial grab sampling at the Saddle Target returned significant beryllium concentrations with assays of up to 4,810 ppm Be. Follow-up channel sampling returned 25.5m averaging 1,142 ppm Be, with a higher-grade portion returning 2,423 ppm Be over 6.13m.
