Vela Minerals Ltd. Completes Initial Public Offering

#160 – 1209 59 Avenue SE Calgary, Alberta T2H 2P6 Tel: 403-255-8203 Fax: 403-455-5681

*THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES*

NEWS RELEASE

Vela Minerals Ltd. Completes Initial Public Offering

October 22, 2012 – Vancouver, British Columbia

Vela Minerals Ltd. (the “Corporation”) is pleased to announce that on October 22, 2012 it successfully completed its initial public offering (the “Offering”) through its agent, Macquarie Private Wealth Inc. (the “Agent”), of 5,074,711 common shares (the “Shares”) for gross proceeds of $761,206.65. The Company paid the Agent a commission of $68,508.60 which is equal to 9% of the gross proceeds of the Offering. The Agent was also paid a corporate finance fee of $25,000 plus applicable taxes for its services in connection with the Offering. The Agent was also issued 507,471 options to acquire up to 507,471 shares for a two year period expiring October 24, 2014.

Proceeds from the Offering will be used to conduct the Phase I exploration program on the Corporation’s Rossland Property located approximately 13 to 16 kilometres southwest of the town of Rossland, BC in the Trail Creek Mining Division of British Columbia, and for general working capital purposes.

The board of directors of the Corporation consists of Derrick Strickland P. Geo. - Chief Executive Officer, Dale Hansen C.M.A. - Chief Financial Officer, Charles Chebry C.M.A., John McCaffrey C.A and Gregory Robb. The Corporation’s common shares will commence trading on October 24, 2012, on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol “VLA”.

On behalf of

VELA MINERALS LTD.

Per: “Derrick Strickland”

Derrick Strickland

Chief Executive Officer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.