VANCOUVER, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - Bear Creek Mining
(TSX Venture: BCM) ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") is pleased to
provide updates on its exploration programs in Peru. The Company maintains a cost
effective generative exploration program alongside its primary
focus of advancing the development of the Corani and Santa Ana
silver deposits. The three projects described in this update range
from an advanced Phase III drilling program at the La Yegua copper
prospect to promising new results from our Maria Jose gold project.
Andrew Swarthout,
President and CEO of Bear Creek, states "Bear Creek has a strong
discovery history leading to value creation for shareholders and is
fortunate to have the funding, experience and expertise to continue
to explore for new discoveries during a time of great opportunity
in the industry when exploration costs have come down and
competition for good prospects has lessened substantially."
Maria Jose Prospect - Maria Jose is located in the Department of
Ancash, 140 kms NNW of Lima.
The project is comprised of Cretaceous to Paleocene intrusives of
the Coastal Batholith hosting a system of east-west to northeast
trending, 45° to steeply north dipping, mesothermal quartz veins
and shear zones containing high-grade gold grade - silver values.
At surface, the five main east-west veins can be traced for a
cumulative strike length of approximately 3 kilometers;
however, shallow cover is prevalent in the district and the
possibility of much longer strike lengths are being investigated by
shallow trenching and sampling. The observed veins range in
thickness from 0.20 meters to 4.5 meters with average true widths
of approximately 1 meter.
Highlights of Maria
Jose include:
- Vein intersections reach up to 4.5 meters with an average grade
of 27.2 g/t gold;
- Systematic channel sampling performed on the Mari vein exposed
158 meters of strike with an average grade of 19 g/t gold over a
true average width of 0.84 meters. The channel samples
establish vertical continuity of gold mineralization over at least
220 meters; and
- Total veins length is approximately 3 km and extend under thin
post-mineral cover.
Initial mapping and channel sampling (16
samples) of several veins yielded values ranging from 2.2 g/t to
233 g/t gold in the east-west trending vein system and from 4 g/t
to 22 g/t gold in the northeast system over widths from 0.2 meters
to 0.4 meters (see news release dated March 18, 2013). The full widths are
being exposed and channel sampled in the ongoing field program.
Based upon preliminary field work to date, the
mesothermal veins are consistently gold bearing and are indicated
to have vertical continuity for at least 300 meters as evidenced by
prospect pits and scattered outcrops separated by thin soil
cover.
The field program commenced in second quarter of
2013 and included mapping and trenching in preparation for Phase I
drilling and an underground exploration tunnel (50 m) anticipated
to commence in mid-2014 pending the outcome of environmental
permits. The goal of this program is to demonstrate the
economic potential through drilling and underground exploration
targeting the veins for grade continuity laterally and at depths up
to 300 meters.
Under the option agreement with a private
Peruvian third party, Bear Creek Mining may acquire 100% of
Maria Jose (3,500 hectares) by
making escalating payments totaling US$4
million over 4 years. The initial option payment
of US$372,000 was paid on
February 27, 2013 and the second
payment of US$310,000 is due 18
months after; however, the second payment is contingent upon
receiving necessary community agreements and permit approvals.
Therefore, the Company has sufficient time to complete additional
field work and initial drill testing to define the potential in
advance of larger, balloon payments. An additional payment of
US$2.6 million must be made if
the deposit contains greater than 1 million ounces gold in
resources as defined by a NI 43-101 technical report. There
are no royalty provisions under the agreement.
La Yegua copper-gold-molybdenum project
- The La Yegua copper-gold-molybdenum prospect is located
in central Peru approximately 20
kilometers northeast of the Los Chancas copper-gold-molybdenum
deposit in a prolific porphyry copper belt also containing the
Las Bambas, Huaquira, Constancia, Tintaya and Antapaccay
deposits.
In October 2010,
Bear Creek entered into a joint venture agreement with Japan Oil,
Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") to advance the La
Yegua Project to phase II drilling. The agreement provides for
JOGMEC to earn a 51% interest through investing US$3 million over a three year period.
JOGMEC has met its earn-in expenditures for acquisition of a 51%
interest in the project. The Company will evaluate the
current results in order to determine if Bear Creek will contribute
its share of exploration expenditures in order to maintain its 49%
interest. Alternatively, the Company can elect to dilute its
interest until reaching 10%, at which time the Company's interest
will revert to a 1.0% NSR.
Phase II drill holes totaling 759 meters (three
holes) were drilled at La Yegua from September 2011 through December 2011, where intercepts of up to 0.2% to
0.3% copper were encountered over intervals of up to 20 meters. The
joint venture also completed additional geophysics in early 2011
that identified two high-chargeability anomalies defined by Induced
Polarization/Resistivity ("IP") surveys.
Phase III drilling commenced on May 22, 2013, and included 1,183 meters of
drilling in three holes. This program tested part of the
aforementioned two geophysical anomalies contacts, and returned
values up to 0.3% copper over 150 meters. Recently, in February 2014, the Joint Venture finished a
drilling campaign comprised of an additional three holes. The final
drill hole intersected the best drill interval at the project (260
meters with 0.29% Cu and 45 ppm Mo) on the borders of a strong
geophysical IP anomaly which remains untested and extends for 1.4
km x 600 m. Geological studies both inside and outside the main
target / IP area will continue in order to identify additional
possible drilling targets. Drilling will likely be reinitiated
during 2014 depending upon obtaining required environmental
permits.
Sumi copper-gold project - The Company
acquired a 100% interest in the Sumi copper-gold prospect by
staking in 2011. Sumi is comprised of 1,200 hectares located
in the gold-silver tertiary-age epithermal belt in central
Peru. The prospect exhibits
alteration and mineralization typical of a volcanic-sediment
hosted, high and low-sulfidation precious metals system with a
copper-gold porphyry potential source. To date, 111 surface
rock chip samples have been collected at Sumi. Assay results
for the 111 samples have returned precious metal values including
15.65 g/t gold and 156 g/t silver in a vein-breccia structure over
widths of 0.3 to 2.0 meters and 12.1 g/t gold and 102 g/t silver
over 2 meter widths in a silicified volcano-sedimentary rock.
Based upon favorable surface mapping and geochemical sampling, a
phase I drilling program was performed in the fourth quarter of
2012 consisting of five diamond drill holes totaling 1,105.3 meters
(see the Company's news release dated March
13, 2013). Highlights of the results are:
- Drill hole SU-5 returns 17 meters averaging 3.6 g/t Au and 3.2
g/t Ag from 50.65 to 68 meters depth;
- Drill hole SU-2 returns 50 meters averaging 0.98 g/t Au and 5.1
g/t Ag from 124 to 174 meters depth;
- Drill hole SU-1 returns 10 meters averaging 4.4 g/t Au from
69.9 to 80 meters depth; and
- Three cyanide extraction bottle roll tests on drill core ground
to 85% passing minus 200 mesh averaged 86.6% gold recovery; two
tests on higher sulfide content samples yielded less than 40%
recoveries.
In March 2014,
Bear Creek entered into a joint venture agreement with Japan Oil,
Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") to advance phase II
drilling to test additional blind vein-breccia targets plus a
possible buried Cu porphyry source underlying the large epithermal
mineralization footprint exposed at the surface. The agreement
provides for JOGMEC to earn a 51% interest through investing
US$2.5 million over a three year
period. After March 2017, Bear Creek
can elect to maintain its 49% interest or to dilute until reaching
10%, at which time the Company's interest will revert to a 1.0%
NSR.
Carito Gold
prospect- In March 2014, Bear
Creek completed a drilling campaign at its Carito gold project (6
holes / 1,428 m total). Drilling encountered low gold grades in
several meters but due to surface enrichment and the low gold
values encountered, Bear Creek has elected to not spend any
additional money on the project and will seek a joint venture
partner or terminate its option agreement.
Consistent with the Company's aggressive
generative exploration philosophy, several additional prospects in
the portfolio are being evaluated for future drilling or
acquisition.
View La Yegua drill results:
http://files.newswire.ca/1317/BearCreek.pdf
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its
Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
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
Christian Rios, P.Geo. VP
Exploration 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
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. These risks, uncertainties and other
factors are disclosed in Bear Creek's continuous disclosure filings
with Canadian securities regulators including its most recent
annual information form, available on www.sedar.com. 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.
SOURCE Bear Creek Mining Corporation
PDF available at:
http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2014/04/08/20140408_C8921_DOC_EN_38920.pdf
