Royal Roads & Benton announce completion of airborne geophysics on the Long
Range JV

    
    Trading Symbol: RRO - TSX-V
    Shares Outstanding: 112,127,290
    

HALIFAX, June 17 /CNW/ - Royal Roads Corp. (RRO-TSX-V) ("Royal Roads") and Benton Resources Corp. (BTC-TSX-V) ("Benton"), the "Companies", are pleased to provide an update on the CDN$1,175,000 Exploration Program ("Program") for 2010 on the 38,150 hectare Long Range Nickel joint venture in central Newfoundland. The program consists of frontier airborne geophysics with follow-up prospecting over newly acquired claims and conducting more advanced exploration on the Portage nickel discovery to include deep-penetrating ground geophysics and follow-up trenching and/or diamond drilling.

Frontier airborne geophysical surveys over the newly acquired claims are now complete with results anticipated to be available in August. Once received, data will be reviewed to select targets for immediate follow-up by ground prospecting. The 1,400 line-kilometre Fugro HELITEM(R) airborne surveys cover unexplored gabbro bodies recently recognized to be prospective for magmatic nickel-copper sulphide deposits. Prospecting activities will assist the evaluation and prioritization of targets for further work, and if warranted, testing by diamond drilling.

Advanced exploration of the Portage Nickel discovery has two goals, the first is to identify conductive targets at depth by completing a ground-based deep-penetrating time domain electromagnetic survey and secondly, to continue trenching and/or shallow drilling to expand the previous open-ended discovery of nickel-copper sulphides at surface. A 70 line-kilometre electromagnetic survey is currently in progress and anticipated to be complete by the end of June. The survey is designed to detect highly conductive targets associated with large massive sulphide accumulations that may occur beneath detection limits of the Companies' previous airborne surveys completed in 2008. The Companies hope to drill test any targets generated by the survey later this summer. The Companies will also undertake additional trenching this summer to further expose and expand the limits of nickel-copper mineralization discovered at the Portage nickel prospect in 2009. Trenching of the prospect in 2009 returned bedrock grab samples assaying up to 2.70% nickel, 0.58% copper and 0.24% cobalt, as well as sawed channel samples averaging 0.99% nickel, 0.22% copper and 0.05% cobalt over 3.0 metres (including 2.18% nickel, 0.19% copper and 0.11% cobalt over 1.0 metre). Limited shallow drilling in 2009 also intersected several sections of mineralized gabbro, including a section assaying 1.36% nickel, 0.36% copper and 0.039% cobalt over a 1 metre core length.

The Companies consider the discovery of nickel sulphide mineralization in gabbro by the Joint Venture late last year to be particularly encouraging, as it not only identifies potentially large accumulations of low-grade disseminated sulphide mineralization near surface, but also has potential for buried high-grade massive sulphide deposits that may have segregated within the gabbro grading in excess of 4% nickel and 3% copper. Results to date support the Companies' interpretation that the project covers a newly recognized mineralized environment broadly analogous to other magmatic nickel-copper sulphide camps in North America, including Vale's Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador and Kennecott's Eagle deposit in northern Michigan. The joint venture is located close to infrastructure, including power lines and roads that provide ready access to port facilities located 40 kilometres to the west. The area is considered receptive to mining, being located less than 65 kilometres southwest of Buchans, one of the province's longest established mining centers. Additional results will be released as they become available.

    
    Qualified Person
    ----------------
    

Paul Moore, M.Sc., P.Geo., (NL), Royal Road's Vice President of Exploration, is acting as Qualified Person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 with respect to this release and has reviewed the contents for accuracy. Quoted assays and QAQC procedures described in detail in previous Royal Roads' press releases dated November 3 and November 18, 2009.

Royal Roads would like to acknowledge financial support to be received from the Junior Exploration Assistance (JEA) Program of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador in carrying out a portion of their work on the Long Range Nickel joint venture in 2010.

    
    About Royal Roads
    -----------------
    

Royal Roads is a resource company based in Atlantic Canada and is primarily focused on exploring and developing mineral properties in the famous historic Buchans mining camp in central Newfoundland, Canada.

    
    About Benton Resources
    ----------------------
    

Benton is a Canadian based junior with multiple joint ventures and a diversified property portfolio in Gold, Nickel, Copper, and Platinum group elements. The company currently has approximately $11.5 million in cash, holds approximately 38.5 million shares and 18.9 million warrant in Coro Mining Corp (TSX.COP), 1.6 million shares in Marathon PGM Corp (TSX.MAR), 1.6 million shares in Puget Ventures (TSX-V.PVS), 825,000 Bell Copper Corp (TSX-V.BCU) and retains a 2% Net Smelter Royalty on the northern portion of the Marathon PGM deposit. Benton is also in the process of splitting out the Company's 100% owned Bermuda property to it shareholders into a new company to be named Coldwell Copper Corp.

    
    Forward Looking Statements
    --------------------------
    

Certain information contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Although Royal Roads and Benton (the "Companies") believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, they can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. The Companies caution that actual performance will be affected by a number of factors, many of which are beyond their control, and that future events and results may vary substantially from what the Companies currently foresee. The Companies' forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

%SEDAR: 00008176E

For further information: Warren MacLeod, President & CEO, Royal Roads Corp., Windsor, Nova Scotia, Ph: [phone]; www.royalroadscorp.ca; Stephen Stares, President & CEO, Benton Resources Corp., Thunder Bay, Ontario, Ph: [phone]; www.bentonresources.ca