Southern Rio cuts gold at 3Ts project (March 08, 2004)

Vancouver — Southern Rio Resources (SNZ-V) has tabled encouraging assay results following exploration drilling on the 3Ts project in central British Columbia.

The program tested several targets on the Tsacha property. At the Tommy vein, drilling intersected a 11.3-metre section that averaged 8.83 grams gold and 62.6 grams silver per tonne. The intersection represents the deepest, and one of the widest, on the Tommy vein at a vertical depth of 280 metres and 100 metres along strike from any previous drilling.

It was the southernmost hole drilled beneath a flat-lying microdiorite sill unit. The intersection expands the resource potential of the Tommy vein. Qualified Person Stewart Wallis will perform an updated resource calculation on the Ted vein using information generated from drilling earlier in the winter. The resources defined on the Ted vein will expand the current inferred resource at the Tommy vein, which stands at 552,500 tonnes averaging 6.82 grams gold and 60.9 grams silver, based on a cutoff grade of 3 grams gold per tonne. This resource was delineated above the microdiorite sill.

Prospecting on the Tam and Taken properties during the summer and fall of 2003 identified several clusters of mineralized boulders. Gold and silver values returned up to 84.3 grams gold and 1,032 grams silver per tonne. The highest-priority target was the Ringer zone, which hosts several large, angular boulders of quartz vein material that measure up to 2 metres in maximum dimension. Eight surface samples returned an average of 19.01 grams gold and 140.1 grams silver.

The company has completed drilling seven holes, for 713.5 metres in the vicinity of the high-grade Ringer boulder occurrence. This target is on the eastern portion of the Tam property.

Drilling intersected a new epithermal vein system with anomalous gold and silver values. Highlights include hole 3, which cut 1.94 metres grading 2.07 grams gold per tonne and 17.2 grams silver per tonne, and hole 7, which returned 1 metre of 0.4 gram gold and 54.1 grams silver.

Southern Rio says this new discovery, which is covered by 25 metres of glacial overburden, appears to represent a different style of mineralization found in the Ringer boulders. Specifically, the bedrock mineralization is associated with base metal sulphides, and company geologists believe it does not represent the source of the Ringer boulders. Additional drilling in the area will further delineate this new vein system. Drilling will also endeavour to determine the source of the high-grade Ringer boulder material.

This is the first new zone of mineralization discovered on the 3Ts project since 1995 and the first “blind” discovery in bedrock beneath the glacial cover.