Rio Grande Mining Corp. Announces Short Form Offering

Vancouver, BC, March 12, 2012: Rio Grande Mining Corp. (RGV - TSX-V) (“Rio Grande” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Jordan Capital Markets Inc. (“Jordan Capital” or the “Agent”) to act as agent on a commercially reasonable efforts basis, in connection with the offering for sale, by way of a TSX Venture Exchange short form offering document, of up to 10,000,000 units of the Company (the “Units”) at a price of $0.20 per Unit for total gross proceeds of up to $2,000,000 (the “Short Form Offering”). Each Unit will consist of one common share and one-half of one transferrable common share purchase warrant, each whole warrant (a “Warrant”) exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.35 per share for a period of 24 months from closing.

On closing of the Short Form Offering, the Company will pay Jordan Capital a commission equal to 10% of the gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the Units, payable in cash and/or Units or a combination of both at the discretion of Jordan Capital. Jordan Capital will also receive non-transferable share purchase options (the “Agent’s Options”) equal to 10% of the aggregate number of Units sold pursuant to the Short Form Offering. Each Agent’s Option will be exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.20 per share for a period of 24 months from closing. The Agent will also receive a corporate finance fee of $20,000 (plus HST) (paid) and 100,000 Units having the same terms as the Units under the Short Form Offering.

The securities issued under the Short Form Offering to purchasers that are insiders or promoters of the Company, to the Agent or to a member of the Agent’s professional group, will be subject to a four month hold period. Purchasers who acquire more than $40,000 of securities under the Short Form Offering will have the portion of those securities acquired which are in excess of $40,000 subject to a four month hold period.

Proceeds raised from the Short Form Offering are expected to be used to complete the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding securities of Tru Vision Corp. (“Tru Vision”), to conduct exploration work on the La Maria Gold project, Colombia (the “Project”), and for general working capital. Tru Vision holds, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, an option to acquire a 100% interest in El Porvenir Minero S.A.S., a private Colombian company that owns Project (see the Company’s news releases dated February 9, 2011, May 19, 2011, June 2, 2011, September 29, 2011, November 16, 2011 and February 23, 2012).


On behalf of the Board of Directors,

/s/ Jerry Minni
President & CEO
Rio Grande Mining Corp.
(604) 683-8610



Statements in this press release regarding the Company which are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as “may”, “expect”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “believe” and “continue” or the negative thereof or similar variations and include statements that: (i) the Company may close the financing to raise up to $2,000,000; and (ii) the proceeds of the financing will be used to fund the acquisition of Tru Vision and the exploration of the La Maria Gold Property and for general working capital purposes. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties such as the risk that the financing may not close in whole or in part for any reason. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements due to factors such as: (i) the inability of the parties to complete the financing, as proposed or at all; (ii) fluctuation of mineral prices; (iii) a change in market conditions; and (iv) the refusal of the TSX Venture Exchange to accept the proposed transaction for any reason whatsoever. Except as required by law, the Company does not intend to update any changes to such statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.