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Bear Creek appoints COO and General Manager to advance development of two large Peruvian silver mines

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 15:11 CDT

VANCOUVER, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Bear Creek Mining (TSX Venture: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Marc Leduc has been named Chief Operating Officer heading the project development team for the Company's Corani and Santa Ana silver deposits.

Mr. Leduc has over 24 years of mining and development experience. He was the chief engineer in charge of developing Barrick's Pierina gold deposit, in Peru where he led the team for the first 3 years through exploration, development, construction and operations. Additionally, Marc worked for 5 years as a consultant specializing in the construction, development and operations of heap leach projects throughout the Americas and Eastern Europe.

The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. David Michaud as the General Manager of the Company's Peruvian Branch. Mr. Michaud is based in Peru and will manage the in-country technical teams on the two projects through completion of feasibility.

Mr. Michaud previously supervised the concentrator start-up and later managed the port facilities at Antamina. Previously, he was the Pilot Plant Manager at a major Canadian testing lab where he commenced more than 20 different plants with variable process flow sheets ranging from simple porphyry copper to complex poly-metallic ores.

"The experience and demonstrated abilities of Mr. Leduc and Mr. Michaud in building and operating mines in Peru provide Bear Creek with the technical depth needed to advance our two important silver deposits to production. We are very pleased that these appointments further lay the foundation for an experienced project development team as we fast track both these projects which together are capable of producing over 15 million ounces of silver per year with cash costs as low as $1.08 per ounce produced at Corani," stated Andrew Swarthout, Bear Creek President and CEO.

In conjunction with the appointments of Mr. Leduc and Mr. Michaud, 400,000 stock option incentives were granted under the terms of the Company's stock option plan. Options were granted at CDN $4.00 representing the share price at the close of market on October 13, 2009 with vesting to occur 25% on grant and 25% vesting every six months with a five year expiration period.

About Bear Creek:

Bear Creek is an exploration and development company with two advanced multi hundred million ounce silver deposits in Peru. The Company has completed a prefeasibility study on its Corani silver-lead-zinc deposit placing 258 million ounces of silver into reserves and has initiated a feasibility study on its Santa Ana silver deposit anticipated to be completed in mid-2010. Both projects are 100% owned by Bear Creek and are expected to provide two important development opportunities for the aggregate production of approximately 15 million ounces silver per year, plus base metals credits. Additionally, the Company maintains an aggressive gold-focused exploration program.

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

SOURCE Bear Creek Mining Corporation

Source: PR Newswire

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