News Release 2012-03
January 13, 2012

NEWS RELEASE

St. Elias Mines Ltd. – Appoints Three New Directors to its Board

Vancouver, B.C. January 13, 2012 Lori McClenahan, President of St. Elias Mines Ltd. (SLI – TSX:V) (“St. Elias” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that Paul F. McDonald, Lloyd C. Brewer and Donald M. Bastien have been elected to St. Elias’ board of directors.  The current directors of the Company are as follows:

Lori McClenahan
Murry Braucht
Tina Whyte
Paul McDonald
Lloyd Brewer
Donald Bastien

 Paul McDonald

Paul McDonald brings to St. Elias over 40 years of diverse and valuable experience in financing and development of growth companies in the resource sector.  He is currently a director of Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation.  Mr. McDonald was previously Vice-President of the Montreal Stock Exchange, and he was principal owner and president of Grant Johnson Securities.  He has had numerous appointments to corporate boards, including Sullivan Mining Group and Chemalloy Minerals Corporation.  He has been a member of the Executive Committees of the Montreal Stock Exchange.  Mr. McDonald has a law degree obtained from McGill University.

Lloyd Brewer

Lloyd Brewer brings to St. Elias more than 30 years of international experience in the mineral exploration business, and has worked to build St. Elias since the Company`s inception in 1995.  He is currently Exploration Manager of the Company.

Donald Bastien

Donald Bastien is Senior Vice-President and General Manager of CTV Montreal and he oversees all operations of CTV Montréal, including news, programming, sales, marketing, community relations, operations and administration. He was appointed to the position in December 2001.  Immediately prior to this appointment, Bastien led CTV’s national sales in Québec for ten years as Senior Vice-President, Sales, based in Montréal.

“I am very pleased with the appointment of these new directors.  As the Company continues to grow, the added expertise of these individuals will be invaluable and paramount to St. Elias’ success”, states Lori McClenahan, President.

St. Elias also announces that pursuant to the Company’s Stock Option Plan, the Company will grant incentive stock options to directors, officers and consultants of the Company to purchase an aggregate 1,500,000 shares at an exercise price of $0.92 per share for a period of two years.

For additional information on St. Elias and its projects, please visit us at www.steliasmines.com or call 1-888-895-5522 (toll free US and Canada) or contact:

ST. ELIAS MINES LTD

(signed “Lori McClenahan”)

Lori McClenahan,
President

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of the contents of this document.

This News Release may contain forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statement.