Bear Creek Mining Corporation Announces Positive Scoping Study And Updated Resource Estimate At Corani Deposit by 24hgold

Re: News Release - Thursday, January 17, 2008
Title: Bear Creek Announces Positive Scoping Study And Updated Resource Estimate At Corani Deposit

Vancouver, B.C. - Bear Creek Mining Corporation (TSX Venture: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is very pleased to announce the results of a positive scoping study, incorporating a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) as defined by NI-43-101 based on the latest resource estimate update for the Corani silver-lead-zinc deposit located in southern Peru. Highlights of these studies include:

The net present value is $329 million at a 7% discount rate for Bear Creek's 70% interest and the internal rate of return for the project is 40%.
The scoping study shows that $587 million is the undiscounted after tax NPV for the Company's 70% share of the project.
Recovered silver production for the first two years will average 22 million ounces per year.
Cash cost of $2.49 per ounce silver.
Measured and Indicated resources have increased 18% to 327 million ounces of silver, 27% for lead to 4.0 billion pounds, and 55% for zinc to 2.5 billion pounds. Total Measured and Indicated resource is 248.4 million tonnes at 40.9 g/t silver, 0.73% lead and 0.37% zinc average grades.

The financial model indicates an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 40% and a net present value (NPV) at a zero percent discount rate for Bear Creek's 70% interest in the project of $587M based upon metals prices of $12 per ounce silver, and $0.93 and $1.19 per pound of lead and zinc, respectively. These prices represent a three-year historical rolling average to the end of November 2007 and two-year future prices weighted 60:40 historical to future. At a 7% discount rate, the NPV for Bear Creek's share is $329 million.

Recovered silver production in the first two years is 22.0 million ounces/year and the project will produce an average of 15.2 million payable ounces of silver, 123 million pounds of lead and 66 million pounds of zinc annually over a 12.5 year mine-life. Cash cost per ounce of silver is $2.49, net of base metals credits. Pre-production capital investment in the project is estimated to be $428M and total capital expenditures are estimated at $592M over the 12.5-year life of the mine. Based upon the aforementioned metals prices, the project achieves payback of capital in less than two years. The scoping study has been prepared using cost estimates and production forecasts provided by qualified engineering consulting groups and the economic analysis was done in conjunction with Bear Creek's financial advisor, Scotia Capital.

Andrew Swarthout, President and CEO, states, "We are very pleased that the scoping study demonstrates that Corani has the capacity to become a large, robust silver and base metals producer. Using current metals prices, Bear Creek's 70% interest in Corani has an NPV of approximately $614M and a 60% IRR at a 7% discount rate. The progress made in metallurgical recoveries during the past six months have given us the confidence to produce a compelling plan for developing the value of Corani, supported by the work of several of the preeminent engineering and metallurgical testing firms involved in major mining project development. Importantly, the study has considered current capital and operating cost escalations recently affecting mine development. Corani shows strong financial returns at assumed prices, costs, and operating assumptions with several upside opportunities which will be examined and optimized in the upcoming prefeasibility study."

The new resource estimate on which the PEA is based, updated as of November 2007 by Independent Mining Consultants (IMC), Tucson, AZ, shows significant growth of measured and indicated resources. Additionally, the new model increased the certainty of the resource estimate by converting an additional 23% of the total tonnes from inferred into measured and indicated categories. The continued conversion of inferred resource into measured and indicated categories supports the continuity of the mineralization and suggests that large, well-established reserves will be possible with very limited in-fill drilling.

SCOPING STUDY AND PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT

The PEA is based upon mining assumptions derived from mine planning sequences completed by IMC and metallurgical test work performed by SGS Laboratories, G&T Metallurgical, and Dawson Metallurgical. The mining sequence primarily derives ore from the higher-grade starter pits (see Resource Estimate section below) in Years 1-6 and increases production from the global resource in later years. Mine-life will likely extend well beyond the 12.5 year depending on ongoing metallurgical test work and future silver prices. All resource categories were used, including inferred resources. Note that in the mine sequence, only 131.5M tonnes of the 248.4M contained in the global resource tonnes are mined.

Key Assumptions for the Corani Project -- Base Case
Item
Annual ore production -- years 1 to end of life (tonnes)	10,500,000
Overall Process Recovery -- Silver	80%
Overall Process Recovery -- Lead -- Into Lead and Bulk Cons	58%
Overall Process Recovery -- Zinc -- Into Zinc and Bulk Cons	61%
Total Processed Tonnes	131,460,000
Average Silver Grade (g/t)	60.6 g/t
Average Lead Grade (%)	0.99%
Average Zinc Grade (%)	0.56%
Recovered ounces of silver (total)	204.7 million
Recovered pounds of lead (total)	1.66 billion
Recovered pounds of zinc (total)	995 million
Overall stripping ratio	1.56 to 1
Life of mine (mining only) years	11.5
Life of mine (processing) years	12.5

Resource prices determined in the resource model of November '07 utilizing three-year backward and two-year forward metals prices weighted 60:40 were maintained for the PEA base case. Using January 14 metals prices, Bear Creek's 70% interest in Corani has an NPV of $614M and a 60% IRR.

The scoping study determines that the project has a number of favorable characteristics:

Positive economics with excellent exposure to up-side silver and base metals prices
Well-defined resources open to expansion and convertible to reserves
Over 106M oz silver at lower grades in the current resource not considered in the current production schedule
Favorable infrastructure; power and access
Available local water supply
Well-defined permitting path
Local population acceptance

Note: in accordance with NI43-101, mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The preliminary assessment includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary assessment will be realized.

RESOURCE ESTIMATE

The scoping study/PEA is based upon an updated resource estimation and mine sequencing performed in Dec '07 by IMC based upon 86,299 meters of drilling in 487 Diamond drill holes completed through Nov. '07. Previous resource estimates used a silver cut-off value to establish the lower limit of the resource. The Company now employs a Net Smelter Return (NSR) method to determine the break between ore and waste. For the global resource, metal prices in the assumptions noted below were employed. To determine the final pit limits for the production schedule used in the scoping study, metal prices of $8.50 per ounce for silver, $0.50 per pound for lead and $0.75 per pound for zinc were used. This results in a production plan that generates higher grades and less tonnes than the global resource. Therefore, the sequencing assumptions used in the PEA are felt to be conservative and significant silver, lead, and zinc contained in the global resource represent up-side potential as process recoveries are improved and/or metals prices continue to strengthen. The following assumptions were used in the global resource estimates:

Mining Cost (Ore and Waste) - $1.25 per tonne
Processing Costs - $8.50 per tonne
General and Administration costs $0.85 per process tonne
Silver Recovery: 80%
Lead Recovery 60%
Zinc Recovery 60%
Resource prices
- Silver Price $12 per ounce
- Lead Price $0.93 per pound
- Zinc Price $1.19 per pound
Other parameters including transportation and refining charges were based on IMC's database of equivalent projects.

The current resource estimates are:

Bear Creek Mining, Corani Project Silver Zone
Mineral Resource Based on $9.35/tonne NSR cut-off and Prudent Open Pit Constraints
November 16, 2007

						Contained Metal
Deposit	Category	Ktonnes	Silver	Lead	Zinc	Silver	Lead	Zinc
			Gm/t	%	%	Million Ozs	Million Lbs	Million Lbs
Main	Measured	10,025	42.3	0.80	0.37	13.6	176.8	81.8
	Indicated	64,250	30.0	0.57	0.43	62.0	807.4	609.1
	Meas+Ind	74,275	31.7	0.60	0.42	75.6	984.2	690.9
	Inferred	11,928	33.1	0.57	0.36	12.7	149.9	94.7
Minas	Measured	6,168	53.4	1.05	0.44	10.6	142.8	59.8
	Indicated	106,970	38.2	0.75	0.38	131.4	1,768.7	896.1
	Meas+Ind	113,138	39.0	0.77	0.38	142.0	1,911.5	955.9
	Inferred	19,698	32.5	0.54	0.39	20.6	234.5	169.4
Este	Measured	20,523	63.3	0.91	0.69	41.8	411.7	312.2
	Indicated	40,485	52.0	0.75	0.57	67.7	669.4	508.7
	Meas+Ind	61,008	55.8	0.80	0.61	109.5	1,081.1	820.9
	Inferred	1,526	30.4	0.41	0.21	1.5	13.8	7.1
Total	Measured	36,716	55.9	0.90	0.56	66.0	731.3	453.8
All	Indicated	211,705	38.4	0.70	0.43	261.1	3,245.5	2,013.9
Deposits	Meas+Ind	248,421	40.9	0.73	0.45	327.1	3,976.8	2,467.7
	Inferred	33,152	32.6	0.54	0.37	34.8	398.2	271.2

Higher-grade cores- Similarly to previous resource estimates, the Corani resource continues to have minable high grade cores. In the current resource estimate 54% of the silver, 49% of the lead and 38% of the zinc contained within the measured and indicated categories are found in the high grade core that represents 29% of the measured and indicated tonnes. Importantly, 98% of the higher-grade resource silver ounces are contained in Measured and Indicated resources.

Bear Creek Mining, Corani Project Silver Zone
High Grade Core Contained in Smaller Open Pit Shapes
NSR Cut-off grade $19.60/tonne
16 November 2007

						Contained Metal
Deposit	Category	Ktonnes	Silver	Lead	Zinc	Silver	Lead	Zinc
			Gm/t	%	%	Million Ozs	Million Lbs	Million Lbs
Main	Measured	3,877	77.9	1.34	0.26	9.7	114.5	22.2
	Indicated	11,389	67.0	1.03	0.38	24.5	258.6	95.4
	Meas+Ind	15,266	69.8	1.11	0.35	34.2	373.1	117.6
	Inferred	1,071	65.1	0.79	0.50	2.2	18.7	11.8
Minas	Measured	3,027	77.5	1.53	0.50	7.5	102.1	33.4
	Indicated	26,642	66.1	1.34	0.41	56.6	787.1	240.8
	Meas+Ind	29,669	67.3	1.36	0.42	64.1	889.2	274.2
	Inferred	795	63.5	0.97	0.35	1.6	17.0	6.1
Este	Measured	11,122	93.8	1.23	0.97	33.5	301.6	237.8
	Indicated	16,057	88.5	1.14	0.85	45.7	403.6	300.9
	Meas+Ind	27,179	90.7	1.18	0.90	79.2	705.2	538.7
	Inferred	39	66.6	0.60	0.24	0.1	0.5	0.2
Total	Measured	18,026	87.6	1.30	0.74	50.7	518.2	293.4
All	Indicated	54,088	72.9	1.22	0.53	126.8	1,449.3	637.1
Deposits	Meas+Ind	72,114	76.6	1.24	0.59	177.5	1,967.5	930.5
	Inferred	1,905	64.5	0.86	0.43	3.9	36.2	18.1

Higher-grade zinc cores- the higher-grade zinc occurs in discrete pods. The current resource estimate shows that in the measured and indicated categories 43% of the zinc occurs in 10% of the tonnes. The zinc extraction has been designed in the mine sequencing in order to optimize zinc recoveries from the higher-grade pods where recoveries are markedly greater.

Bear Creek Mining, Corani Project
High Grade Zinc Areas at 1% Zinc cut-off of Global Resource
16 November 2007

		Zn	Pb	Ag	Contained
	Ktonnes	%	%	gm/t	M Lbs Zn
Measured	5,800	2.19	1.42	81.2	280.0
Indicated	19,709	1.79	0.99	45.5	777.8
Total M&I	25,509	1.88	1.09	53.6	1,057.8
Inferred	2,994	1.61	0.52	24.8	106.3

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. The block model estimate was prepared by Independent Mining Consultants of Tucson Arizona. John Marek P.E. acted as the independent qualified person as defined by Canada's National Instrument 43-101. Additionally the methods used in determining and reporting the resources are consistent with the CIM Best Practices Guidelines for the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves. The method used in the resource calculation is equivalent to the method used in the resource calculation shown in our August 23, 2006 Press Release. For this resource estimate we have used metal prices based on a 3-year backward average and a 2-year forward price based on the current metal markets, assumptions used in the resource model by IMC. Actual results will vary based upon completion of metallurgical testing:

Silver Price= $12.00/oz; Zinc Price= $1.19/lb; Lead Price= $0.93/lb; Silver Recovery= 80%; Zinc Recovery= 60%; Lead Recovery= 60%; Smelter charges: Silver= $0.35 per ounce; Zinc= $0.1989 per pound; Lead= $0.178 per pound; Mining Costs per tonne= $1.25; Process cost per tonne= $8.50; G&A per processed tonne= $0.85; Pit Slopes= 42 degrees in mineralized tuff and 50 degrees in post-mineralized tuff. High grade cores defined in a floating cone using $5.90/oz Ag, $0.46/lb. Pb and $0.59/lb. Zn; all other variables were consistent with the global resource calculation. 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. 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.

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