NEWS RELEASE St. Elias Mines Ltd. Announces Exploration and Development Plans for Tesoro Project in Peru

Vancouver, B.C. December 20, 2012 St. Elias Mines Ltd. (SLI - TSX:V) today announced further exploration and development plans for its wholly owned Tesoro Gold Project in southern Peru. “After careful review, we have adopted a two-part strategy to advance our Tesoro project over 18 to 24 months,” said Lori McClenahan, President and CEO of St. Elias Mines. “In order to carry out the strategy we will need additional capital. We are focused on completing our financing and hope to do so during early 2013, if market conditions permit.”

One part of the Tesoro strategy involves exploration to explore for new gold-bearing material. St. Elias has established a number of attractive targets for a 3,000 metre to 5,000 metre diamond drilling campaign. The other part of the strategy involves development focused on more than 20 waste rock dumps left behind by prior mining activity. St. Elias intends to sample and test the dumps and prepare a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate. St. Elias proposes to follow up with a prefeasibility study to determine whether gold could be profitably recovered from the dumps, providing cash to support additional exploration

Details of Proposed Exploration Drilling Activities Subject to the availability of additional capital, St. Elias proposes diamond drilling of 3,000 – 5,000m in order to:  Test the extensions (both vertical and along strike) of some of the known gold bearing quartz veins (notably the A-4, C-1, C-2 and Poderosa veins). The geologically-modelled strike extensions of both the C-1 and C-2 vein systems are covered by a 10-30m thick blanket of dacite tuff both to the east and west of the previously-drilled outcropping vein segments;  Explore for high-grade gold in deep, down-plunge extensions of the steeply-plunging gold-bearing “ore shoots” in the A-4, C-2 and Poderosa veins. The “ore shoots” in these veins were thoroughly exploited by independent miners in past years, but production was limited to a few tonnes per day (pers. comm., Marcial Portocarrero, 2012).  Explore for high-grade gold in selected parts of the A-4, C-2 and Poderosa veins, notably the inferred down-plunge “ore shoots” in these veins that were thoroughly exploited by independent miners in years past. These are worthwhile drill targets because past production in each mine was limited to a few tonnes per day. An existing Category 1 EIA drilling permit (allowing St. Elias to drill 20 platforms or less) is in place that allows the Company to continue drilling at Tesoro if the existing 20 drill pads already in place are utilized again. An Environmental Impact Study (EIAsd) to support an expanded drill permit (allowing a virtually unlimited number of drill platforms) is nearing completion.

Details of Proposed Development Activities Subject to the availability of additional capital, St. Elias intends to complete the National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate on the waste rock dumps [by mid-2014]. These dumps are unusual because they were left behind by informal miners who rejected any material that was visually estimated to grade less than 15 g/t gold (pers. com., Marcial Portocarrero, 2012). Peliminary surface-pit sampling of the larger dumps returned sample grades ranging from 0.5 to 5 g/t. Mechanized trenching of the dumps has been underway since October 3, 2012, preparing

Page 3 ST. ELIAS MINES LTD.

sample sites within the deeper sections of the dumps. Systematic metallurgical bench testing of dump material will begin once all of the dump sample assays have been received and compiled. If the National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate justifies further development, St. Elias would proceed with a pre-feasibility study that will incorporate resource data, metallurgical data and preliminary cost estimates for a full-scale gold recovery project at Tesoro. The most likely approach would be a combined vat (agitated) leach and heap leach gold recovery project. The purchase and installation of a small and simple (50 tpd) processing plant to process screened dump feed will be considered if the pre-feasibility study so recommends.