Southern Rio kicks off exploration in central B.C.

Vancouver — Southern Rio Resources (SNZ-V) has commenced a summer exploration program on its 3Ts project in central British Columbia.

The program will focus on the emerging Nechako epithermal gold- silver camp, and will include work on the contiguous Tam, Tsacha and Taken properties. The Tam property is wholly-owned by Southern Rio, while the Tsacha and Taken are under option from Teck Cominco (TEK-T) and Phelps Dodge (PD-N), respectively.

The initial field work will consist of ground geophysics, geological mapping and geochemistry in order to better define and extend the nine known vein systems as well as identify further targets for a drill program scheduled for later this year. Southern Rio states that it plans to look for volcanic-hosted, low sulphidation, epithermal vein and stockwork gold-silver mineral systems. This style of deposit is typical of many precious metal mines around the “Rim of Fire”, and includes such high-grade producers such as the El Penon Mine of Meridian Minerals in Chile, the Midas Mine of Newmont (formerly Franco Nevada) in Nevada, and the Hishikari Mine of Sumitomo Mining in Japan.