St. Elias Mines Ltd. - Environmental Impact Study Completed at Tesoro Gold Project in Peru

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Lori McClenahan, President and CEO of St. Elias Mines Ltd. (SLI - TSX:V), today announced that the Peruvian government has approved the Company's Environmental Impact Study ("EIS") for the Tesoro Gold Project located in southwestern Peru.  This represents the third EIS completed at the Tesoro site.

"We are delighted with the approval of our EIS.  The completion of this EIS is in line with St. Elias' aggressive exploration program at Tesoro.  The Company is now well-positioned to begin its drilling program with cash and encouraging exploration results, including gold assays and favourable targets from a deep penetrating Titan 24 geophysical survey, in hand," Ms. McClenahan noted.

The 2011 drilling program at the Tesoro Gold Project will commence as soon as possible.  The program is being designed to test near surface and deeper geophysical anomalies identified by the Titan 24 geophysical survey.  The drilling program will consist of 10,000 metres of diamond drilling with holes down to depths of up to 1,500 metres.

Exploration results to date have shown the Tesoro Gold Project to be permissive for the expansion of known gold mineralized zones both on strike and to depth as well as the discovery of additional gold mineralization.  The Tesoro Project has never been evaluated to depth, or to its full strike potential.  This provides the potential for the discovery of additional mineralization.  

Tesoro Gold Project, Peru

The Tesoro Gold Project, consisting of nine mineral claims covering 17,436 acres, is located in the Department of Arequipa in the District of Acari in southwestern Peru.  The property is 100% owned by the Company with no underlying royalties.  

The Tesoro Gold Project lies within the well-known 300 km X 30 km Nazca-Ocona gold belt adjacent to and paralleling the Pacific coast of southwestern Peru.  The Nazca-Ocona gold belt has a long mining history dating back to pre-Incan time with more than 70 gold deposits having been discovered and exploited since the 17th century, which are quartz-vein hosted.  Gold is associated with disseminated sulphides that seeped into quartz veins and fractures within the intrusive body.  The continuity of the quartz veins is very impressive in the Nazca-Ocona belt.  While the veins tend to be narrow, the grade is significant and the mineralized structures tend to extend along strike for several kilometers and to depths of up to 1,000 meters.

The Tesoro Gold Project is an advanced stage gold exploration target hosting several historic gold showings and gold workings.  The style of mineralization on site represents a mesothermal vein exploration target, indicating that the vein structures may extend to a considerable depth.  To date, mesothermal-vein style gold mineralization has been identified superficially and to depths of up to 100 metres in underground workings.

Qualified Person

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed by, Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., who is a "qualified person" as defined in National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

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.

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.

SOURCE St. Elias Mines Ltd.