Vancouver - Bear Creek Mining Corporation ('Bear Creek' or the 'Company') (TSXV: BCM) (OTCQX: BCEKF) (BVL: BCM) is very pleased to announce it has entered into a definitive agreement with Equinox Gold Corp. ('Equinox') to acquire a 100% interest in the Mercedes gold-silver mine located in Sonora, Mexico.
The Mercedes acquisition will transform Bear Creek into a precious metal producer and provide a source of funding for future construction of the Company's world class Corani silver mine.
Benefits of the Mercedes acquisition to Bear Creek shareholders
The Mercedes acquisition will: Add a high quality, low cost, cash flowing asset to Bear Creek's project portfolio
Provide a source of free cash flow to help fund development and construction of the Corani silver mine
Offer excellent near-mine and regional exploration upside
Diversify Bear Creek's asset base with mix of jurisdictions, project stages and commodities while retaining a precious metals focus
Create an opportunity for re-rating of the Company's shares to align with junior precious metals producers
Enhance the Company's share registry and market profile with the addition of two new strategic stakeholders
'Moving from a development stage company into a precious metals producer is an important step in Bear Creek's evolution', states Anthony Hawkshaw, President and CEO of the Company. 'The acquisition of Mercedes provides our shareholders a cash flowing asset with expansion potential and participation in a land package with an exciting exploration outlook. Furthermore, the financial and technical support provided by Sandstorm reinforces management's conviction that Mercedes will be a positive contributor to each of our treasuries; a positive contribution that for Bear Creek will, in large part, be directed to the continuing development of Corani.'
Strategic Rationale
The Mercedes acquisition adds an attractive operating asset that provides free cash flow, which the Company will use as a non-dilutive source of funding to develop the Company's world-class Corani silver deposit, and to explore the Mercedes property. With a strong track record of exploration success, consistent historical replacement of ore reserves, and vast areas of the property unexplored, management believes the Mercedes property offers exploration upside with the potential to expand known reserves and extend the mine life beyond current projections, with ample spare mill capacity for expansion of production.
About Mercedes
The information in this section is derived from the NI 43-101 Technical Report, Mercedes Gold-Silver Mine with an effective date of December 31, 2020. Readers are urged to review the NI 43-101 Disclosure below for further details.
The Mercedes mine is located in the state of Sonora, Mexico, approximately 300 km northeast of the city of Hermosillo and 300 km south of Tucson, AZ, within the prolific Mexican epithermal gold belt. It comprises 43 mineral concessions covering 69,285 ha.
Gold-silver mineralization on the Mercedes property is hosted within epithermal, low sulphidation veins, stockwork, and breccia zones. Aside from a brief Covid-related shut down in the spring of 2020, Mercedes has been in continuous operation since commencing production in 2011. Up to December 31, 2020, 5.84 million tonnes grading 4.42 g/t gold and 49.5 g/t silver have been processed, with a total of approximately 781,800 ounces of gold and 3,356,200 ounces of silver produced.
The Mercedes mine is a ramp-access underground operation that utilizes fully mechanized cut-and-fill mining. Ore is processed by conventional milling followed by agitated leach with Merrill-Crowe recovery of gold and silver. The process plant has a capacity 2,000 tpd with an average production rate from 2016-2020 of approximately 1,450 tpd. From 2012-2020 the average gold and silver recovery rates were 95.4% and 39.2%, respectively.
Throughout Mercedes' production history, gold-silver ore has been produced from five deposit areas, of which two (Diluvio and Lupita) are currently being mined. Thirteen mineralized zones in four vein systems have been identified to date within the Mercedes property through surface and underground drilling. These mineralized zones occur in three sub-districts: Mercedes (Mercedes and Barrancas - Marianas vein systems); Klondike (Klondike - Rey de Oro vein system) and Lupita (Lupita- Diluvio vein system).
Contact:
Barbara Henderson
Tel: 604-628-1111
Email: barb@bearcreekmining.com
Web: www.bearcreekmining.com
Forward-looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding: the structure, anticipated closing date and regulatory approval of the Acquisition; the merits and expected benefits of the Acquisition to the Company and its shareholders; the terms and conditions of the Sandstorm Gold Stream and the Sandstorm Convertible Debenture; the anticipated future operating performance, production and cash flow from the Mercedes Mine; the potential for the discovery of additional mineralized vein systems and mineralized bodies at the Mercedes property; the possibility of defining additional mineral resources within the Mercedes property, to convert known or future mineral resources to mineral reserves, and to extend the current Mercedes Mine life projection; the Company's plans to direct free cash flow from Mercedes toward the development and construction of the proposed Corani Mine; the potential benefits of the Acquisition to the Company's ongoing Corani project financing efforts; the potential for re-rating of the Company's shares and other statements regarding future plans, expectations, guidance, projections, objectives, estimates and forecasts as well as the Company's expectations with respect to such matters. These forward-looking statements are provided as of the date of this news release, or the effective date of the documents referred to in this news release, as applicable, and reflect predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events based on the Company's beliefs at the time the statements were made, as well as various assumptions made by and information currently available to them. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to: that the terms and conditions of the Acquisition, the Sandstorm Gold Stream and the Sandstorm Convertible Debenture will not be subject to material changes; that the Acquisition will be approved by regulators; that the documents, projections and models on which the Company has relied are accurate in all material respects and, that the Company will continue to seek financing for and develop the Corani project in accordance with its stated strategies. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions on which they are based do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the expectations expressed in them. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions expressed above do not occur, but specifically include, without limitation, risks relating to general market conditions and the additional risks described in the Company's latest Annual Information Form, and other disclosure documents filed by the Company on SEDAR. The foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. Investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the Company or on behalf of the Company, except as required by law.
BEAR CREEK MINING CORPORATION 
