Bear Creek Mining Corporation - News Releases - Positive Drill Results Continue To Expand Corani Silver Deposit; Santa Ana And El Abuelo Project Updates

News Releases

Fri Mar 2, 2007
Positive Drill Results Continue To Expand Corani Silver Deposit; Santa Ana And El Abuelo Project Updates

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Bear Creek Mining (TSX Venture: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results for twenty-one additional drill holes (3,360 meters) from the Corani project. These results bring the total to 104 holes drilled since the latest updated resource estimation on this major silver discovery (see news release 5 December 2006). The total drilling completed on the property now stands at 71,184 meters in 431 holes. Highlights of this release include:

• Minas Corani: Drilling further extends mineralization to the northwest under post-mineral tuff cover with 83 meters averaging 76 g/t Ag and 0.9% Pb, including 20 meters averaging 171 g/t Ag and 1.8% Pb (C-191), and 72 meters averaging 65 g/t Ag and 0.6% Pb, including 26 meters averaging 96 g/t Ag and 0.9% Pb (C-191A).
• Minas Corani: Infill drilling continues to confirm continuity (C-192A with 50 meters averaging 53 g/t Ag and 0.7% Pb, including 8 meters averaging 134 g/t Ag and 1.6% Pb).
• Minas Corani / Corani Este Connection: Drilling in the covered valley between Minas and Este intersects both silver and zinc mineralization.

• Current drilling focusing entirely on new targets as both silver and base metal mineralization remains open in all deposits.

Andrew Swarthout, President and CEO, stated "Infill drilling at Corani is largely completed and we are now focused on unexplored targets within the Corani District. Tremendous potential remains for new discoveries at Corani in the targets that exist either under the post mineral tuff adjacent to known mineralization, or in the large, prospective color anomaly that hosts known mineralization, of which we have tested only 10 per cent of the area. Drilling aimed at increasing resources is ongoing in conjunction with scoping study and pre-feasibility work, which is focused on completing the final metallurgical flow sheet."

To access the Corani District Exploration Potential Map directly please refer to:
http://www.bearcreekmining.com/s/PhotosAndMaps.asp?ReportID=168832

THE LATEST DRILL HOLE RESULTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

MINAS CORANI ZONE

Drill Hole #	Azimuth	Inclination	Total Depth	From (m)	To (m)	Interval (m) True Width	Silver (grams per tonne)	Lead	Zinc
Drill Hole #	(degrees)	(degrees)	(m)	From (m)	To (m)	Interval (m) True Width	Silver (grams per tonne)	(%)	(%)
C-186	70	-50	168.05	48	156	108	27.4	0.4	0.1
includes				104	126	22	54.4	0.5	0.1
C-186A	250	70	111.75	32	58	26	15.4	0.1	0.1
C-188	70	-50	159.40	2	154	152	17.5	0.2	0.1
C-188A	250	-50	101.80	1	90	89	16.0	0.2	0.2
C190	250	-50	105.65	6	22	16	36.9	0.1	nil
				42	54	12	Nil	0.4	0.5
				66	94	28	13.5	0.7	0.5
including				82	86	4	Nil	nil	1.5
C-190A	70	-50	97.50	11	20	9	23.4	0.1	nil
				36	54	18	10.4	0.5	0.4
				76	78	2	Nil	nil	1.0
C-191	70	-60	224.35	77	160	83	76.2	0.9	0.1
including				106	114	8	111.8	1.2	0.2
and				138	158	20	171.4	1.8	0.1
				170	182	12	nil	0.3	0.6
C-191A	250	-70	158.00	72	144	72	65.3	0.6	0.1
including				102	128	26	95.8	0.9	0.1
C-192	250	-60	140.15	34	122	88	35.8	0.6	0.1
C-192A	70	-60	151.20	80	130	50	52.6	0.7	0.4
including				90	98	8	133.8	1.6	0.2
C-193	70	-70	191.35	79	174	95	21.8	0.4	0.1
C-193A	250	-70	233.20	56	74	18	36.6	0.4	0.1
				138	222	84	36.6	1.3	0.2
including				140	166	26	77.3	1.1	0.1
C-194	70	-70	254.55	96	116	20	25.9	0.7	0.1
C-194A	250	-70	212.35	56	124	68	17.7	0.3	0.1

CORANI ESTE

Drill Hole #	Azimuth	Inclination	Total Depth	From (m)	To (m)	Interval (m) True Width	Silver (grams per tonne)	Lead	Zinc
Drill Hole #	(degrees)	(degrees)	(m)	From (m)	To (m)	Interval (m) True Width	Silver (grams per tonne)	(%)	(%)
C-185A	70	-70	105.70	64	78	14	nil	0.1	1.1
C-187	70	-70	151.80	No significant intervals
C-187A	250	-70	100.80	No significant intervals
C-189	250	-70	103.90	34	48	14	12.9	0.3	0.5
C-189A	70	-70	85.40	40	48	8	24.8	0.7	2.0
C-195	70	-70	258.15	168	200	32	66.1	0.6	0.1
				198	230	32	nil	0.4	0.5
including				226	230	4	nil	nil	1.5
C-195A	250	-70	245.35	98	198	100	31.5	0.3	nil

Please refer to Bear Creek's website at www.bearcreekmining.com for drill hole locations, trench assay maps, previously reported drill intervals and detailed assay results. To access the silver drill hole map directly please refer to: http://www.bearcreekmining.com/i/pdf/030207MAP.pdf

Minas Corani -- Step-out drilling on the northwest extension continues to intersect significant mineralization that will have a very low stripping ratio under thin post-mineral tuff cover (75 meters thick). Drill holes C-191 and C-191A, intersected 83 meters averaging 76.2 g/t Ag and 0.9% Pb, including 20 meters averaging 171.4 g/t Ag and 1.8% Pb, and 72 meters averaging 65.3 g/t Ag and 0.6% Pb, including 26 meters averaging 95.8 g/t Ag and 0.9% Pb, respectively. These intersections lie directly on the trend of mineralization established by initial pit modeling and extend mineralization 70 meters to the northwest. Drilling will continue to extend the mineralization northwest and west where the resource remains open and the stripping ratios are favorable.

Infill drilling on the northeast extension confirms the December '06 resource with drill hole C-192 intersecting 50 meters at 52.6 g/t Ag.

Minas Corani / Corani Este Connection -- Drill testing in the low covered area between these two main deposits at Corani has further expanded the zinc potential under shallow cover (C-185 with 14 meters averaging 1.1 % Zn). Higher-grade, zinc mineralization typically underlies and overlaps silver mineralization at Corani and this intersection confirms that zinc mineralization extends between Minas Corani and Corani Este throughout the topographically lower covered area. The connecting mineralization between Minas Corani and Corani Este is further confirmed with a new interval of 100 meters averaging 31.5 g/t Ag in drill hole C-195A. Additional drilling is in progress to the north and southwest to extend this mineralization where it remains open, and to test for continuity of both silver and zinc mineralization in the covered valley separating the two deposits.

Two drills continue on the project focused on exploring extensions under cover in both the Corani Este and Minas Corani targets. The December '06 resource estimate converted 34% of inferred resource into measured and indicated categories leaving only 12.5% of the resource in the inferred category, thus confirming the continuity of mineralization and that significant infill drilling is not necessary.

Metallurgical Testing- Test work continues at SGS-Lakefield Research on two composite samples from four large-diameter HQ drill holes completed in December 2006 and initial results are expected in the next month.

Updates: Other Properties

SANTA ANA: Detailed metallurgical bottle roll tests on 10 drill core reject samples has commenced at McClelland Labs in Sparks, Nevada, USA, and results will be reported as soon as they are received. Initial bottle roll and leach shaker tests strongly indicate that low-cost leaching performance will be favorable. Large metallurgical samples are being prepared at this time to be shipped to McClelland Labs for detailed column leach tests and are expected to confirm the project's amenability to heap leaching. Results of the detailed bottle role test and the initial results from the column leach tests will be used to guide Phase III drilling in the second quarter, 2007.

EL ABUELO: Initial-phase core drilling (1000-1500 meters) commenced on 1 March on the El Abuelo gold project and full results of Phase I drilling are expected by mid-April. El Abuelo, one of several acquisitions made recently by Bear Creek as part of the Company's ongoing generative program, is a gold prospect (500 has.) located approximately midway between Barrick Gold's Pierina and Alto Chicama mines (See News Release of 17 January '07):

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

Andrew Swarthout - President and CEO, or Patrick De Witt - Investor Relations
Phone: 604-685-6269 Direct: 604-628-1111
E-mail:

For further information, please visit the Company's website www.bearcreekmining.com

Regulatory footnotes:
All of Bear Creek's exploration programs and pertinent disclosure of a technical or scientific nature are prepared by or prepared under the direct supervision of David Volkert, P.Geo., Bear Creek's Vice President of Exploration, who serves as the qualified person (QP) under the definitions of National Instrument 43-101. All diamond drilling has been performed using HQ diameter core with recoveries averaging greater than 95%. Core is logged and split on site under the supervision of Bear Creek geologists. Sampling is done on two-meter intervals and samples are transported by Company staff to Cusco, Peru for direct shipping to ALS Chemex, Laboratories in Lima, Peru. ALS Chemex is an ISO 9001:2000-registered laboratory and is preparing for ISO 17025 certification. Silver, lead, and zinc assays utilize a multi-acid digestion with atomic absorption ("ore-grade assay method"). The QC/QA program includes the insertion every 20th sample of known standards prepared by SGS Laboratories, Lima. A section in Bear Creek's website is dedicated to sampling, assay and quality control procedures.

Certain disclosure in this release, including management's assessment of Bear Creek's plans and projects, constitutes forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to Bear Creek's operation as a mineral exploration company that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. *Any reference to the potential quantity & grade of mineralization at Corani is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on the property and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in discovery of a mineral resource on the property. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Bear Creek expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.