Bear Creek Mining Corporation - News Releases - Bear Creek Drilling Expands Silver Mineralization on its 100% Owned Santa Ana Project, Peru

News Releases

Tue Aug 7, 2007
Bear Creek Drilling Expands Silver Mineralization on its 100% Owned Santa Ana Project, Peru

Vancouver, B.C. - Bear Creek Mining (TSX Venture: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from ten additional diamond drill holes, including the first five holes located in one of several untested soil covered anomalies. Mineralization is extended by 300 meters north of previously reported intercepts and remains open. Drilling at Santa Ana now totals 9,200 meters in sixty-five drill holes. Santa Ana is located 200 kilometers south of the Company's world class Corani silver-base metal deposit in southeastern Peru. Highlights of this press release include:

Drill hole SA-29 intersects 68m @ 38 g/t Ag and 18 m @ 218 g/t Ag.
Drill hole SA-29A intersects 66m @ 66 g/t Ag, including 16 m @ 120 g/t Ag and 6m @ 286 g/t Ag.
Drill hole SA-30 intersects 30m @ 103 g/t Ag, including 10 m @ 145 g/t Ag.
Drill hole SA-31 intersects 118m @ 37g/t Ag, including 36m @ 81g/t Ag.
Drill hole SA-32A intersects 70m @ 48.3g/t Ag, including 32m @ 76.1g/tAg.
Mineralized footprint now extends 1.3 km by 750 meters, an increase of 30%, and mineralization still open with very strong vectors for expansion and higher grades.

Andrew Swarthout, President and CEO of Bear Creek, states "The drill results strongly confirm that the silver anomalies in soil over covered areas on three sides of the deposit indicate substantial potential for the expansion of the mineralized areas. Additionally, the continued higher grade silver intercepts within long intervals of lower grade mineralization supports our concept of treating the mineralization using a pulp agglomeration treatment method. This method utilizes vat leaching of higher grade material with accelerated recoveries followed by heap leaching for more moderate grade material. This conventional technology can produce silver dore on-site at very low cash costs with anticipated recoveries very likely to be greater than 70%."

Mr. Swarthout continues "We are very pleased to be steadily advancing towards the first resource estimate on this discovery expected to be completed by years-end. As target areas continue to open up, a second drill has been contracted for August 2007."

Drilling results are as follow. All intercepts are down-hole lengths and true widths have not been calculated.

Drill Hole #	Azimuth (degrees)	Inclination (degrees)	Total Depth (m)	From (m)	To (m)	Interval (m) DTH	Silver (grams per tonne)	Lead (%)	Zinc (%)
SA-29	270	-50	218	44	112	68	38.4	0.2	0.6
includes				80	104	24	73.2	0.3	0.7
				150	168	18	218.1	0.5	0.7
				200	206	6	37.7	2.0	1.0
SA-29A	90	-45	166	2	68	66	66.4	0.2	0.5
includes				24	40	16	119.5	0.4	1.0
and				60	66	6	286.3	0.2	0.1
SA-29B	90	-75	173	34	48	14	27.0	0.2	0.5
				66	150	84	35.9	0.2	0.5
includes				68	72	4	82.5	0.4	1.0
and				88	102	14	82.4	0.2	0.4
SA-30	270	-40	185	18	30	12	59.0	0.2	0.3
				64	94	30	102.5	0.4	0.8
includes				70	80	10	145.2	0.4	0.9
and				86	94	8	153.0	0.6	1.1
				124	152	28	48.4	0.3	0.6
includes				124	130	6	77.0	0.1	0.3
SA-30A	90	-60	53	No significant intervals – basal sediments at 32m depth
SA-31	280	-40	213	62	180	118	37.2	0.2	0.4
includes				62	98	36	81.3	0.3	0.4
and				116	120	4	97.0	0.2	0.2
and				158	160	2	180.0	0.6	1.0
SA-31A	100	-60	141	4	94	90	24.9	0.1	0.2
includes				86	92	6	83.7	0.3	0.3
SA-32	285	-50	191	0	68	68	18.8	0.2	0.4
				110	120	10	19.0	0.4	0.9
				162	182	20	20.7	0.4	0.7
SA-32A	105	-60	156	32	102	70	48.3	0.5	0.8
includes				58	90	32	76.1	0.8	1.1
SA-32B	105	-80	202	0	72	72	17.4	0.2	0.4
				104	134	30	23.1	0.4	0.7

(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/PhotosAndMaps.asp?ReportID=200915)

Importantly, the drill results from the SA-29 and SA-30 series, located 125 to 250 meters north of SA-22 (previously, the farthest north drill hole) confirm that soil/rock grid sampling is an effective tool to both expand the mineralized areas and define additional targets under shallow cover. Drill hole SA-31 extends the strike length of the NW Breccia zone an additional 75m to the south and hole SA-32A continues to demonstrate the potential for intersecting blind, high grade structures in the center of the mineralized zone.

The second drill being added to the project will allow exploration of new targets plus in-fill drilling to extend the limits of mineralization and provide data for a resource estimation. Drilling will continue to step out to the north beyond the mineralization identified by drill holes SA-29/30. Drilling is also planned in the untested soil and rock anomalies extending 250m to the south and 200m west of the current drilled area.

Metallurgical Testing - Second phase test program involving three column leach tests has been initiated at McClelland Labs in Sparks Nevada, to evaluate the amenability of the Santa Ana material to standard heap leaching methods. The results of the second phase of testing are anticipated to be completed within the next two to three months, given the long-term nature of these ongoing column tests. 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% at 70% passing 2mm. 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.

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 higher- 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.

Independent 43-101 Report - The Company is also pleased to report that it has filed on SEDAR a technical report titled Property Report for the Santa Ana Project, by Mike McClave dated July 2, 2007. The report summarizes the Company's public disclosure, including geologic information, drill results, and QA/QC programs and is authored by Independent Qualified Persons as defined by NI 43-101.

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.