News Releases
| Wed May 16, 2007 Bear Creek Intersects High-Grade Silver And Expands Mineralization On 100% Owned Santa Ana Project | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vancouver, B.C. - Bear Creek Mining (TSX Venture: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from the first five diamond drill holes in the third phase of drilling at its 100% owned Santa Ana silver project. Santa Ana is located 200 kilometers south of the Company's Corani silver-base metal deposit in southeastern Peru. Drilling at Santa Ana now totals 5,034 meters in forty-two drill holes. Highlights of this press release include: • Drill hole SA-2B intersected mineralized intrusive and volcanics with 152 meters @ 96 g/t Ag, including 52 m @ 240 g/t Ag; hole bottomed in 45 g/t Ag • High grades intersected in SA-23; 20m @ 128 g/t Ag, including 4m @ 416 g/t Ag • Mineralization extended to the west by drill hole SA-2A; entire hole (139 m) averages 35 g/t Ag with significant intercepts of 78 g/t to 91 g/t Ag. Hole ended in 54 g/t Ag • Mineralization open with strong vectors for extension Andrew Swarthout, President and CEO of Bear Creek, states "these early results from Phase III exceed our expectations and strongly support our thesis that Santa Ana hosts a bulk-tonnage, open pit silver deposit. The latest drilling not only starts to expand the footprint of mineralization; it begins to define high grade zones that will likely contribute significant value to the discovery. Oxide mineralization continues to dominate; a factor that bodes well for the excellent leaching characteristics indicated by early metallurgical testing. We are currently expanding the Phase III drill program, as well as continuing our aggressive metallurgical test program. Mineralization remains open laterally in at least three directions; south and west where an IP anomaly indicates extensions and north towards additional outcrops containing anomalous silver. The northern anomaly increases the target area by approximately 1,500 meters and the entire silver anomaly is at least 2.5 kilometers long by 600 meters wide. To date we have only completed wide-spaced drilling in approximately 50% of this 1.5 square kilometer prospect". Mr. Swarthout continues "the drill is currently working in the southern portion of the anomaly, approximately 500 to 800 meters south of these reported drill holes. We are encouraged by the evidence of strong mineralization. Assay results are pending on these holes and will be reported as they become available in the coming weeks. Drilling results are as follow. All intercepts are down-hole lengths and true widths have not been calculated.
(Full drill results can be found at www.bearcreekmining.com. To access the silver drill hole map directly please refer to http://www.bearcreekmining.com/s/Image.asp?i=maps/NRMay15.gif&id=186817) Metallurgical Testing - The first phase of metallurgical testing, which involved cyanide leach tests of 10 samples selected from all areas of known silver mineralization (including both low and high grade ranges), has shown that silver recovery can be expected to be 85% with crush sizes of 50% passing 200 mesh and 71% recovery at 70% passing 2mm. A second phase metallurgical test program has been initiated at McClelland Labs in Sparks Nevada, to evaluate the amenability of the Santa Ana material to standard heap leaching methods. The initial results from the early bottle-roll test work show that the silver mineralization leaches well at ¾ inch crush sizes, a standard heap leach crush size. Column leach tests are in progress. Standard heap leaching processing methods will likely be the best option for the lower grade portions of the Santa Ana deposit but it is anticipated that milling may be used for the "high-grade" grade silver mineralization encountered in the current phase of drilling. Both the mill products and the crushed heap leach material will ultimately be combined on the heap leach pad, in a processing method know as pulp agglomeration. At this time Bear Creek anticipates the potential combined leach recovery of silver will be approximately 70%; with up to 85% recovery expected with grinding of the higher grade silver mineralization. The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. - End - Andrew Swarthout - President and CEO, or Patrick De Witt - Investor Relations Phone: 604-685-6269 Direct: 604-628-1111 E-mail: info@bearcreekmining.com 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 and/or Marc Leduc, P. Eng., Vice President of Technical Services and the President and CEO, Andrew Swarthout, P.Geo., who serve as the Qualified Persons under the definitions of NI 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 Juliaca, 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||