Overview

Alberta Star is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding term sheet (the "Agreement") with Sterling Mining Company ("Sterling") whereby the Company has entered into a binding agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Sterling and its assets and provide for financing of Sterling's ongoing operations.

STERLING MINING COMPANY
Sterling is currently a debtor-in-possession in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the District of Idaho, U.S.A. Sterling is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring, developing and mining mineral properties primarily those containing silver and associated base and precious metals. Sterling operates the Sunshine Silver Mine in Idaho and has exploration projects in Idaho, U.S.A. Sterling was incorporated under the laws of the State of Idaho on February 3, 1903 and its common shares are currently listed on the OTCBB: SRLMQ and Frankfurt Stock Exchange: SMX.

THE SUNSHINE SILVER MINE
The Sunshine Mine located near Coeur d'Alene Idaho, U.S.A. and has been one of the world's largest producers of silver, having recorded production of over 360,000,000 ounces of silver since 1904. A 2007 Canadian "National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects", report by Behre Dolbear & Company estimated remaining resources as follows: Measured and Indicated resources of 31.51 million ounces of silver in 1.43 million tons at 21.8 ounces of silver per ton; Inferred resources of 231.5 million ounces of silver in 2.28 million tons at 101.6 ounces of silver per ton. The Behre Dolbear & Co. National Instrument 43-101 report is considered historic in nature and is used to illustrate the ongoing resource potential of the Sunshine Mine. The Report can be found on file under Sterling's profile with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available in Canada at;
43-101 Report

click to enlarge Sunshine Silver Mine Location Map

The Sunshine Mine property had its beginning in 1884 when the Blake brothers staked the Yankee Lode mining claim. Various contiguous holdings were consolidated to become the Sunshine Mining Company in 1920. The mine was then an economically marginal property consisting of 15 patented claims and one un-patented claim shipping hand-sorted ore with a silver price of $1.00/oz.

In 1921 a 25 tons per day mill was constructed. From this modest beginning, the mill was expanded piecemeal and eventually reached a daily capacity of 500 tons. Soon after the concentrator was commissioned, the Sunshine tunnel was driven from the surface in an exploration effort which discovered higher quality ore historically identified as "Chinatown"

In 1926, encouraged by the production successes in the Chinatown area, (upper Sunshine Vein), the Incline shaft was sunk from the Sunshine tunnel elevation to well below the bottom of the Chinatown working areas, eventually reaching 1900 level in1934. Soon after, drift crews discovered a bonanza vein of the first order. The No. 3 shaft was then started eventually to reach the 3100 level in 1938.

In 1935 the concentrator was upgraded with new ball mills grinding units and flotation cells increasing the capacity to 1000 tons per day while attaining a recovery of 98%. The sinking of the new four-compartment vertical Jewell shaft was started reaching the 2300 level in 1936.

In 1943 a drift crew, drifting east on 2700 level following the Silver Syndicate fault, direction discovered the famous Chester vein.

It was primarily the exploitation of the Sunshine vein followed by the Chester vein that determined the present configuration of the underground workings. With the discovery of the Chester on 2700 level and the ore body's distance from the Jewell of approximately 4000 feet east - southeast, other internal shafts the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 10 shaft (more properly defined as winzes) were sunk or raised to more efficiently service the operations. The other principal internal shaft is the No. 12 shaft, servicing the Copper vein and the West Syndicate vein in the western end of the mine.

In 1960, sand-filling operations were introduced underground. The mill tailings were classified so that the coarser material, approximately 45% of the total mill feed, being used for stope backfill.

By the end of 1988, the mine was at full production. Ore production was primarily from mining the Chester vein systems serviced by the No. 10 shaft and the remnants of the Sunshine and Rambo vein stopes referred to as the Footwall area on 3700 and 3400 levels. The 4000 and 4200 level Copper vein was under development from the No. 12 shaft.

In 1989, the mine produced 4.8 million ounces of silver. The production from the high grade Copper vein stopes began to impact the silver production volumes. During 1990, the mine produced 5.4 million ounces of silver, the highest since 1971. By now the highgrade Copper vein stopes on 4200 level were becoming substantial producers, while production from the 10 shaft stopes was dropping off.

In 1991 the silver price fell to $3.90 per ounce and the operation was losing money. A mining plan was put together to reduce losses substantially while waiting for prices to improve. This plan was referred to as the "small mine plan" and was implemented in June 1991. The operation headings underground were centralized by shutting down the outlying, more costly production and development headings, and limiting operation to day shift only. The mining operations were consolidated in the area of the Copper vein and the most productive headings in the "Footwall Area". The mine below 5000 level was salvaged and allowed to fill with water. Production was cut in half, while the work force was reduced by 65%.

In 1992, the West Chance vein was discovered. By late 1996 it was clear the ore body was of sufficient size and value to support the mine's return to full production. The reserves were then developed by trackless ramp and lateral development methods using LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) equipment. The working areas outside the West Chance were shut down and salvaged in an orderly fashion and all resources were directed toward the West Chance. By July 1997, the mine workings below the 4000 level were salvaged of all usable equipment and materials and allowed to begin filling with water. In 1995, Sunshine acquired the neighboring Consolidated Silver (ConSil) property generally consisting of the surface facilities and the underground workings of the commonly known Silver Summit Mine. This mine has served as the Sunshine Mine's second access for years. The ConSil underground mine workings are primarily accessed by an adit from the surface located about two miles east of the Jewell shaft to an internal shaft, which extends vertically 5600 feet.

The mine ceased production in the first quarter of 2001 as a result of several factors, including the low price of silver and the lack of regular and consistent exploration and development activities due to prior management shifting cash flow from the mine to sustain corporate expenses, debt and other projects.

At closure the mine reserves were 1.13 million tons containing 26.75 million ounces of silver at 23.6 ozs Ag/ton. Upon closing of the mine these 'Historic' or 'Legacy reserves' were reclassified to 'mineralized material' as required by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. These "Legacy Resources" are now classified as being Mineral Resources under the CIM Definition Standards.

From historical records beginning in 1904 the Sunshine Mine has produced 364,893,421 ounces of silver from 12,953,045 tons of ore through 2001 when the mine was closed. From January 1, 1998 to January 1, 2004 the average reserves carried by the mine were 1.38 million tons containing 32.20 million ounces of silver at 23.3 ozs Ag/ton.

"From Behre Dolbear & Company, Inc. 2007 report"

Infrastructure
The Sunshine mine infrastructure is antiquated and will be fully serviceable after repairs and renovations are made. Water and electric supplies are sufficient for near-term future use. Property access is by a 2 mile paved county road paralleling Big Creek that intersects off US Interstate I90. Communications, including telephone are installed and operable.

Geology
The district is hosted by the rocks of the Pre-Cambrian Belt super group, which is divided into the Prichard group, Ravalli group, Middle Carbonate group, and Missoula group. The Ravalli group formations contain the Revette and St. Regis formations that are the preferred host rocks for silver mineralization in the district. Ore deposits are localized within the 600 ft. thick St. Regis formation and the underlying upper members of the 3,000 ft thick Revette formation. The contact between the formations is indistinct and is locally picked as being the bottom of the lower-most distinct purple-colored interval in the St. Regis. Rock types include argillite, siltite, serictic quartzite, and vitreous quartzite.

Mineralization
Over 30 veins have been named and mined at the Sunshine Mine. While the initial work suggests distinct veins, some of these veins are actually offsets across post-ore structures and others represent parallel footwall or hanging wall veins. Principle vein systems in the mine include the Sunshine, Chester, Copper, Yankee girl and West Chance. The Sunshine and Chester each of which has produced over 100 million ounces of silver. Major veins strike east-west and dip about 65º to the south. Locally, dips range from 45º to 90º. Strike lengths are up to 2000+ ft and dip lengths are two to three times greater than the strike length. Major veins are located between the faults at an angle of about 25º to the bounding faults. Veins vary in width from a few inches to over 30 ft, but are generally between 1 to 5 ft. thick. Ore minerals include tetrahedrite and galena with siderite and quartz as the principal gangue minerals. The silver content of the tetrahedrite varies and the silver to copper ratio in the ore ranges from 40:1 (opt Ag:%Cu) to over 100:1. Tetrahedrite occurs as blebs, fracture fillings, or in veinlets. Samples of over 200 oz/ton (opt) silver have been collected in the mine. Other minerals include pyrite and arsenopyrite with minor to trace amounts of chalcopyrite, sphalerite, boulangerite, bourmonite, pyrargyrite, and magnetite.

The estimated Sunshine mine resources are stated in Table below. (Adopted from the NI 43-101 Technical report. To review details please refer to the Technical report for Sunshine Mine.)

The inferred resources are shown in Table below. These figures include only the estimated tonnage and grade of the vein material, unlike the measured and indicated resources above, which include in their estimation the dilution and mining loss that will be produced from the appropriate stoping method. As the vein material estimates do not include dilution or mining loss the result is the apparently high resource grade.

Behre Dolbear reported, based on their feasibility analysis, that there are Proven and Probable reserves present at the property. The contained ounces in these reserves include a 15% mine recovery loss deduction and are stated in Table below,

Note: Resources are considered historic in nature and used to illustrate ongoing resource potential. To view the details of the resource estimates please refer to NI 43-101 report. The Report can be found on file under Sterling's profile with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available in Canada at;     NI 43-101 Report