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 feasibility study ("the "Feasibility Study" or FS"), as defined by National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"), for its 100% owned Santa Ana silver deposit located in southern Peru. Highlights of this study include (all figures in this news release are in US dollars):
The planned development of Santa Ana by 2012 is an important step towards Bear Creek becoming a 20 million ounce a year silver producer with the addition of production from the planned Corani deposit in 2014.

Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves containing 63.2 million ounces of silver at Santa Ana bringing the Company's total reserves to over 321 million ounces.

Santa Ana Project pre-tax NPV of $85.3 million at a 5% discount rate and IRR of 25.3% at $14.50 per ounce silver. After tax net present value of $66.5 million and IRR 21.8%.

11 year mine life producing 44.2 million ounces of silver.

Average annual saleable silver production of 4.6 million ounces per year for the first 6 years.

Cash cost of $9.02 per ounce silver for the 11 years LOM.

Capital costs of $68.8 million with Capital Payback in 3.4 years at $14.50/ oz Ag.

At $22.92 per ounce silver the project would have a pre-tax IRR of 70.2% and an NPV at 5% of $341 million. On an after tax basis the IRR would be 52.6% and NPV $232 million.

At current silver prices of $22.92 per ounce, free cash flow estimated at $46 million per year for the first 6 years with a 1.4 year pay back.

Numerous upside opportunities being explored including increase of silver recovery, reductions in cash costs, and an extended mine life plan to include an additional 35.7 million ounces silver.

The Santa Ana deposit remains open, mainly at depth and to the north where the northernmost holes contain up to 22 meters @ 124 g/t Ag from surface.

Andrew Swarthout, President and CEO, states, "We are very pleased with the results of the Santa Ana Feasibility Study as this is the next major step in Bear Creek becoming a preeminent silver mining company. With the development of Santa Ana followed by the larger Corani project, Bear Creek has the assets to become a 20 million ounce per year silver mining company by 2014, which would place the Company within the top five pure silver mining companies in the world. As Santa Ana moves towards final permitting and detailed engineering, we will be investigating the opportunities we have identified with regard to improved metal recovery and mine expansions to maximize the value of this very robust project."

Bear Creek will host a conference call and webcast on Thursday October 7th, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. (Pacific) or 11:00 a.m. (Eastern) to discuss the results. Call-in and webcast information is provided at the bottom of this release.

Project summary - The project has a pre-tax internal rate of return ("IRR") of 25.3%, a net present value of $85.3 million at a 5% discount rate and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") of $144 million over the 11 year life based upon $14.50 per ounce silver. Recovered silver production in the first six years averages 4.6 million ounces per year and the project is expected to produce an average of 4.0 million payable ounces of silver per year over the 11 year mine-life. Pre-production capital investment in the project is estimated to be $68.8 million and sustaining capital expenditures are estimated at an average $1.4 million per year over the 11-year life of the mine. Based upon a $14.50 silver price, the project achieves payback of capital in approximately 3.4 years. The Feasibility Study has been prepared using cost bids and estimates and production forecasts provided by qualified engineering consulting groups.

Project Upside - Considerable opportunities are available to enhance the results described in the Feasibility Study, especially in the light of currently high silver prices. Preliminary mine plans show that the mine life could be extended on the order of 50%, potentially adding 35.7 million contained silver ounces (30MT @ 37g/t Measured + Indicated Resources) to the current 63 million contained silver ounces of reserve. Additionally, column leach tests indicate that slightly finer crushing of the ore down to 3/8 inch from ¾ of an inch would likely improve the recoveries from 70% to 75%. Importantly, column leach tests (in progress) utilizing 3/8 inch material indicate that the silver recovery is significantly accelerated at the finer crush size presenting further opportunities to bring cash flow forward as well as increase silver recoveries.

FEASIBILITY STUDY

The reserve and resource estimates were updated for the FS by Independent Mining Consultants ("IMC"), Tucson, AZ. and Ausenco Vector, Lima, Peru co-lead the study with support from Resource Development Inc. ("RDI") (processing), and McClelland Labs, Sparks, NV. (metallurgical testing). All are independent preeminent engineering and metallurgical testing firms with recent mine development and operating experience in Peru. Within the next 45 days the Company will be posting on SEDAR an updated 43-101 compliant Technical Report for the Santa Ana Project to support the disclosure in this news release.

The FS is based upon mining assumptions derived from mine planning sequences completed by IMC and metallurgical test work performed by McClelland Labs. The mining sequence derives ore from the pit for 9.5 years and during the operation of the mine a 3 million tonne stock pile of ore is built up which is used as leach feed after mining has stopped. The mine will utilize conventional open pit methods with a waste to ore stripping ratio of 2:1. The crushing operation will run for 10.3 years with feed coming directly from the mine followed by crushing of the stock pile. Leaching of the ore and drain-down of the leach pad will continue for approximately one year after the addition of new ore has been stopped. The ultimate leach pad recoveries are expected to be at least 70% with 50% of the silver being recovered in the first month of leaching. The mine will produce a high purity silver doré bar that will be shipped off site for refining.

Key Assumptions for the Santa Ana Project -- Base Case

Item
Annual ore production -- years 1 to end of life (tonnes) 3,600,000
Overall Process Recovery -- Silver 70%
Total Processed Tonnes 37,077,000

Average Silver Grade (g/t) 53.0 g/t
Recovered ounces of silver 44.2 million
Overall stripping ratio 1.96 to 1
Life of mine (mining only) years 9.5
Life of mine (processing) years 11.2

The silver price selected for the FS is $14.50 per ounce.

PROJECT ECONOMICS
Sensitivities to various parameters are summarized below:
Case IRR NPV @ 5% NPV @ 0%

Base Case 25% $85.3M $143.6M
Recovery +10% 34% $127.4M $203.5M
Recovery -10% 16% $43.1M $83.5M
Metal Price +10% 34% $129.4M $206.5M
Metal Price -10% 16% $41.0M $80.5M
Initial Capital Cost +10% 23% $79.0M $136.7M
Initial Capital Cost -10% 28% $91.6M $150.5M
Operating Cost +10% 20% $59.1M $106.6M
Operating Cost -10% 31% $111.5M $180.5M

Metal Prices Oct. 6, 2010 70% $341.1M $508.0M

Note: Base case price is $14.50/oz Silver; London Silver spot price fix from October 6, 2010 = $22.92/oz Ag .All values are pre-tax

RESERVE and RESOURCE ESTIMATE
Bear Creek Mining, Santa Ana Project Silver Zone
Mineral Reserves and Resources
October 7, 2010
Mineral Reserves, Cutoff Grade, Variable 27 to 24 g/t Silver by Year

Category Ktonnes Silverg/t Lead % Zinc% Contained Silver Million Ozs
Proven 8,951 57.6 0.37 0.66 16.6
Prob 28,126 51.5 0.33 0.55 46.6
Prov+Prob 37,077 53.0 0.34 0.58 63.2
Note: no lead and zinc will be recovered

Mineral Resources in Addition to Reserves, Cutoff Grade = 15 g/t Silver
Category Ktonnes Silver g/t Lead% Zinc% Contained Silver Million Ozs
Measured 13,386 34.6 0.30 0.51 14.9
Indicated 51,337 35.1 0.30 0.50 57.9
Meas+Ind 64,723 35.0 0.30 0.50 72.8
Inferred 21,632 40.6 0.32 0.49 28.2

The FS is based upon an updated resource estimation described in the press release dated 12 July 2010. The mine sequencing performed in September 2010 by IMC is based upon 60,458 meters of drilling and assays in 348 diamond drill holes and trenches completed through August 2009. Measured and Indicated Resources contained within the Feasibility Study design pit were used to determine final pit limits and thus converted respectively into Proven and Probable Reserves. In addition to reserves, 72.8 million ounces of silver remain in measured and indicated resources occurring outside of the Feasibility Study pit.

Metallurgical testing - The Company has completed six column leach test at McClelland Labs and over one-hundred leach amenability tests. The results have consistently demonstrated that the Santa Ana ore responds well to conventional heap leaching techniques. The overall recovery is expected to be 70% silver for minus ¾ inch crushed material. More recent column tests indicate that further improvements in recovery to 75% silver can be achieved by crushing the ore to minus 3/8 of an inch. McClelland Laboratories is currently performing a column test on minus 3/8 inch crushed material and the Company will release the results when this long-term test is finished. Initial results strongly indicate an improvement in recovery and acceleration of the silver leaching.

OPPORTUNITIES
The study has identified areas of opportunities that will be analyzed immediately in detailed engineering and column leach test work:
Organic growth- The Feasibility Study leaves 36 million ounces of measured and indicated silver resources in either stockpiles or pit walls that can lead to expanded mine life on the order of 50%. Relatively minor additional capital will be required in order to increase the size of the heap leach pad and waste dump sites for which there is ample area for expansions.
Exploration upside- The deposit is still open at depth, to the north and northwest, and the "North" anomaly is under-explored.
Enhanced Silver Recovery- Analysis of the recently completed column leach studies indicates that higher recoveries are likely with a slightly finer crush size. At 80% passing 3/8 inch crush size the anticipated recovery is 75% of the silver and initial results from test work indicate the speed of silver recovery is greatly improved.
Operating Cost Reductions- The project is sensitive to operating costs. The Company and its consultants believe that, once the project is in operation, many of the reagent consumption levels used in the Feasibility Study will be reduced with a beneficial effect on the operating costs. Additionally, once a finer crush size is chosen, there is potential to reduce the cash costs by $0.30 to $0.40 per ounce resulting from accelerated silver leaching rates and increased recoveries.

MINING AND PROCESSING
Mining will be performed using conventional open pit methods using 63t trucks and 8.6m3 wheel loaders mining on 5 meter high benches. The mine requires minimal pre-production waste stripping of 2.97 million tonnes.

Processing of the ore will be by conventional crushing followed by placement of the crushed ore on a heap leach pad using haul trucks. The ore will be crushed close to the leach pad to 80% passing ¾ inch, loaded in haul trucks and placed in cells in the leach pad where weak cyanide solution will be applied to the crushed ore. The leach solution will be collected at the base of the pad and will flow by gravity to the silver recovery plant. The silver recovery plant will be a conventional Merrill Crowe plant producing a high purity silver doré bar. In addition to the silver, a small amount of gold will also be produced; averaging 700 ounces gold per year. The doré will be transported to an international silver refinery for final processing into pure silver.

CAPITAL COSTS
The project capital cost estimate has been prepared by two independent engineering companies. The mining costs were prepared by Independent Mining Consultants of Tucson, Arizona, and the process heap leach and infrastructure costs have been prepared by Ausenco-Vector of Peru. The initial startup capital is estimated to be $68.8 million and the total life of mine capital cost is estimated to be $83.8 million. The initial capital equates to $1.56 per ounce of silver recovered. The life of mine capital costs used in the financial model include detailed long-term plans for heap leach expansions as well ongoing mine closure and monitoring.

OPERATING COSTS
Mining costs were prepared on a year-by-year basis with costs varying mostly due to changing haulage distances. The life-of-mine average mining costs will be $1.68 per tonne of the total material moved. The cost for hauling and placing ore on the pad will be $0.71 per tonne. The process costs are estimated to be $3.19 per tonne of process ore and the G&A is estimated to be $1.17 per process tonne or $4.2 million per year. The average life-of-mine on site operating cost per ounce will be $8.35. Including refining charges, doré transport and Peruvian production royalties, the average cash cost per ounce will be $9.02.

INFRASTRUCTURE
The project has favorable infrastructure. Access will be via a good 8 km gravel road that will be a combination of new and improved roads requiring mostly upgrading. The new road will connect to the existing paved highway connecting the Bolivian border to the port of Ilo. The mine is 42 km from an electrical substation at Pomata and the project includes building a transmission line to the mine. The project has an excellent site for the heap leach pad resulting in a low capital and operating cost as the plant will be located immediately adjacent to the heap leach pad and ponds. The site is close to a very large alluvial aquifer that is replenished by a flowing river in the valley; wells have been drilled in the aquifer and sufficient water is available to provide water for the mines needs. A 10 km pipeline from the wells to the mine will be built to transport the water.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL
The project has been designed to meet international standards of environmental compliance. The heap leach and solution ponds have been designed to the highest standards of containment and stability. The waste rock storage facilities are designed to capture and manage any flows that may originate from the waste rock. Finally an initial closure plan has been developed that will provide covers for both the heap leach and waste rock facilities that will result in safe and environmentally compliant closure of the mine. The Company has maintained good working relationships with the local communities.

The Company is currently advancing the permitting process and expects to submit the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment to the Peruvian authorities before the end of the year.