MARKS OFFICIAL BEGINNING OF TESTING AND START-UP PROCESS FOR INITIAL



    PRODUCTION MODULE



    HENDERSON, NV, Aug. 11 /EMWNews/ - Searchlight Minerals

Corp. (OTC BB: SRCH) (the "Company"), is pleased to provide investors with

the following update on the development and construction activities at its

Clarkdale Slag Project in Clarkdale, Arizona.



    RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS



    Searchlight Minerals today announced that on August 8, 2008, the Town

of Clarkdale, Arizona issued a Certificate of Occupancy for the main

production building that is anticipated to house the majority of the

Company's initial 100 to 250 ton-per-day (tpd) commercial production module

for the extraction of precious and base metals from a 20 million-ton slag

pile in Clarkdale, Arizona.



    The slag pile is located approximately six miles from the historic

United Verde Copper Mine in Jerome, Arizona, which produced some of the

richest copper ore ever mined in the U.S. Clarkdale housed a smelter

operation for the United Verde Mine, and when smelting activities ceased in

1947, a metal-bearing slag was left at the Clarkdale site. Independent

engineers, operating under chain-of-custody procedures, have estimated that

the slag pile is comprised of approximately 20.2 million tons of material

that contains approximately 0.50 ounces of gold per ton, along with silver,

copper, zinc and a ferro silicate byproduct.



    During 2008, the Company has been involved primarily in the renovation

of an existing 26,000 sq. ft. building at the Clarkdale site. The building

is anticipated to house most of the components of the initial full-scale

production module, including crushing, grinding, leaching, filtering and

ion exchange (IX) circuits. Concurrent with the building's renovation, the

Company has been taking delivery of and installing major equipment items,

such as conveyer systems, impact mills, a vibratory mill, leaching tanks,

filter presses, ion exchange systems and lab equipment.



    The vast majority of operations related to the production of precious

and base metals will occur within the main processing building. With full

access to the building, the Company is now in a position to commence the

testing and start-up procedures involving major equipment components,

including the crushing, grinding, leaching and filtering circuits that are

key to the full-scale operation of the module. Pre-operational systems

integration and equipment de-bugging represent a critical element in the

start-up process. During the testing and start-up phase, the Company will

specifically focus on the grinding circuit to ensure that the precursory

steps to metals liberation are effectively achieved with the full-scale

equipment.



    "We view receipt of the Certificate of Occupancy for the main

production building as the official beginning of the testing and start-up

process at our initial production module in Clarkdale," stated Ian McNeil,

Chief Executive Officer of Searchlight Minerals Corp. "In coming weeks, we

will complete the final electrical and plumbing work necessary to operate

and test individual equipment components and sequential production

circuits. Our technical team looks forward to running slag material through

the grinding/crushing circuit and utilizing our well-equipped laboratory to

conduct immediate, on-site analyses of leaching results in order to further

optimize the metals extraction process."



    FUTURE MILESTONES



    The Certificate of Occupancy for the main building represents the

second of three occupancy certificates that the Company must obtain in

order to fully operate the first production module at the Clarkdale site.

In June 2008, the Company received the Certificate of Occupancy for its

on-site laboratory facilities. A final occupancy certificate will be

required for a separate building, currently under construction, that is

anticipated to house the electrowinning (EW) equipment.



    The Company elected to significantly upgrade its EW systems, which will

be responsible for the final extraction of copper and zinc. The

state-of-the-art copper and zinc EW equipment has already been delivered to

the site and is anticipated to be housed in a separate building, currently

under construction, adjacent to the primary processing building. The

relative efficiency of the initial production module in extracting gold,

silver, copper, zinc and ferro silicates from the slag will serve as the

basis for a proposed full-scale production facility that is intended to

contain a number of modules with a total production capacity of 2,000 tons

per day.



    "I am pleased to report that we are on track to complete construction

of the EW building in the fourth quarter," continued McNeil. "Construction

of this building, installation of the copper/zinc electrowinning equipment,

and integration of the EW system into the production process will comprise

the final milestone in the completion of a fully functioning production

module that can run as a continuous circuit, from start to finish. The

Company will use the time during which the EW building is under

construction to fine tune the grinding, filtering, leaching and precious

metals extraction circuits."



    CONCLUSION



    "We continue to work with a team of over fifty consultants and

equipment suppliers from around the world to develop, design, construct and

soon operate the first Clarkdale production module. Bringing this facility

on line is a complicated process of systems integration, and while there

are defined milestones along the way, the timing of specific events is

often difficult, because each such event is inextricably tied to so many

others. However, it remains the Company's goal to have a complete and

operating module before the end of 2008."



    "Once the metals recovery module is fully tested and optimized, we will

retain an independent engineering firm to conduct a formal, commercial

feasibility certification. Completion of such certification will allow us

to determine critical aspects of our development and expansion strategy,"

concluded McNeil.



    The objective of this update, and others that will follow, is to allow

our investors and other stakeholders to more fully appreciate the Company's

interim accomplishments and progress towards its stated goals and

objectives.

    About Searchlight Minerals Corp.



    Searchlight Minerals Corp. is a minerals exploration company focused on

the acquisition and development of projects in the southwestern United

States. The Company is currently involved in two projects: (1) the

Clarkdale Slag Project, located in Clarkdale, Arizona, is a reclamation

project to recover precious and base metals from the reprocessing of slag

produced from the smelting of copper ores mined at the United Verde Copper

Mine in Jerome, Arizona; and (2) the Searchlight Gold Project, which

involves exploration for precious metals on mining claims near Searchlight,

Nevada. The Clarkdale Project is the more advanced of two ongoing projects

that the Company is pursuing. The Searchlight Gold Project is an

early-stage gold exploration endeavor on 3,200 acres located approximately

50 miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada.



    Searchlight Minerals Corp. is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada, and

its common stock is listed on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol

"SRCH". Additional information is available on the Company's website at

http://www.searchlightminerals.com and in the Company's filings with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission.



    Forward-Looking Statements



    This Press Release may contain, in addition to historical information,

forward-looking statements. Statements in this news release that are

forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties

concerning the specific factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors"

and elsewhere in the Company's periodic filings with the U.S. Securities

and Exchange Commission. When used in this news release, the words such as

"could," "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "potential",

"should", and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. The risk

factors that could cause actual results to differ from these

forward-looking statements include, but are not restricted to the Company's

limited operating history, uncertainties about the availability of

additional financing, geological or mechanical difficulties affecting the

Company's planned geological or other work programs, uncertainty of

estimates of mineralized material, operational risk, environmental risk,

financial risk, currency risk and other statements that are not historical

facts as disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the

Company's periodic filings with securities regulators in the United States.

Consequently, risk factors including, but not limited to the

aforementioned, may result in significant delays to the projected or

anticipated production target dates.