El Nino Ventures Inc.

July 12, 2011, Vancouver, Canada. -- El Niño Ventures Inc. ("ELN" or "Company") (TSX.V: ELN; FSE: E7Q) is pleased to announce the commencement of Phase II drilling program on the Murray Brook project in the Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick. The program is under the direction of Votorantim Metals Canada Inc.

Figure1- Project Location Map

The Phase II drill program is planned to further delineate the deposit in areas of low drill density, follow-up higher grade intercepts, as well as test the known margins and possible extensions of the deposit and ultimately the results to be used for an updated resource calculation.

In addition, any significant targets identified by the recently completed HeliTEM survey and ongoing Falcon AGG (Airborne Gravity Gradiometry) survey will be evaluated as additional targets in the Phase II drill program. There are 40 holes, (6,650 meters) planned for the grid based systematic drill program.

The drill plan is designed to start on the south near-surface section of the deposit and move to the north on deeper parts of the massive sulfide body in a systematic manner. The actual drill hole depths will vary depending on the massive sulfide intercepts encountered during the drill program.

Additional holes will be proposed if significant massive sulfides are intersected in the step-out holes located along the margin of the massive sulfide body.

Figure-2 illustrates the historical drill hole locations, Votorantim drill holes to date and the proposed drill holes on a grid plan.

About El Niño Ventures Bathurst Projects;

1. Murray Brook Project: Under Votorantim's Option and Joint Venture Agreement with Murray Brook Minerals and Murray Brook Resources, both privately held companies, Votorantim can earn a 50% interest in the Properties, by funding $2,250,000 in exploration expenditures and making payments totalling $300,000 over a three year period commencing November 1, 2010. Votorantim can earn an additional 20% interest in the Properties by funding an additional $2,250,000 in exploration expenditures over an additional two year period. El Nino has elected to enter into a participation agreement wherein it can earn 50% of Votorantims interest by paying 50% of the costs incurred by Votorantim in the Option and Joint Venture Agreement.
    

2. Bathurst Mining Camp Project: Consists of an initial 4,712 claims in tri-party agreement with Xstrata & VM Canada whereby VM Canada may incur exploration expenditures of $10 million over a period of 5 years to earn a 50% interest. VM Canada may further increase its interest to 70% by spending an additional $10 million over 2 years.

Figure2- Drill hole Location Map

About Murray Brook Deposit;

The Murray Brook deposit is a polymetallic, volcanic hosted, massive-sulfide deposit and is the fifth largest in the Bathurst Mining Camp. The property is located approximately 60 km west of Bathurst New Brunswick, in Restigouche County, within the Bathurst Mining Camp. An existing gravel road accesses the property from a paved highway. The electricity grid is nearby, as are communities with goods, services and skilled labor.

Figure3- Murray Brook and Camel Back Location Map

Gossan zone was removed during the open-pit mining operations carried out by Novagold Resources Inc. during the early 1990s. The hanging wall is moderately chloritic and is locally intensely deformed. The foot wall consists of fine grained, felsic tuff and tuffaceous sediments with moderate to strong chlorite and sericite alteration. Sulfides are mainly fine grained, massive, vaguely laminated pyrite with disseminated and banded sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena.

Removal of the gossan also removed any evidence of previous drilling within the shallow pit area. Consequently, VM Canada's due diligence process to acquire the Murray Brook deposit required the confirmation of several historically, reported drill results, in addition to compilation of previous work.

Significant drill results from the due diligence, drill twin-hole program included massive sulfide intersections that were similar in width, position and positively confirmed the grades for copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver reported from the three previously drilled holes. Based in part on these results, VM Canada entered into an option agreement with Murray Brook Minerals.

VM Canada Statement:

Technical details in this news release were provided by VM Canada whose professional geologists conduct operations consistent with mineral industry best practices. VM Canada accepts no responsibility for this news release or any inferences made from the technical details provided herein.

Qualified Person:

John W. Londry is a Qualified Person (QP) who has reviewed and approves the information that is included in this press release

About the Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) Project:

Upon execution of the tripartite agreement, the BMC project comprised: 1,805 claims owned 50% ELN, 50% Xstrata Zinc; 2,907 claims owned 100% by Xstrata Zinc; together with an Area of Interest in which ELN and Xstrata Zinc hold equal interest. Earlier drilling campaigns delineated several historical deposits of lead, zinc and copper mineralization within the 1,805 claims in which ELN currently holds 50% interest (see June 4, 2008 press release).

In February 2011, ELN announced that a $5 million, exploration program, consisting of airborne and ground geophysics has been completed and a 10,000 meter drill program slated to commence in the spring of 2011 is underway. (See press release dated February 23, 2011).

About the Murray Brook and Camel Back Properties

The 505 hectare, Murray Brook mining lease (ML252) contains the Murray Brook deposit, discovered in 1956 and mined by Novagold Resources from 1989 to 1992. Total production was 1,384 kg of gold and 9,829 kg of silver from 2.7 Mt of oxide ore (Gossan). A sulfide resource was defined below the open pit (Gossan), prior to the implementation of NI 43-101 standards of disclosure, historically reported by NovaGold in 1988 to be 20.2 Mt grading 1.4% Zn, 0.3% Cu, 0.6% Pb, 25 g/t Ag and 0.3 g/t Au. A copper-rich zone within this deposit contains an estimated 2.087 Mt grading 2.0% Cu, 1.1% Zn, 0.4% Pb, 46 g/t Ag and 0.3 g/t Au. Under the provisions of NI 43-101, insufficient work has been carried out to classify any of the historic occurrences as current mineral resources and the historical estimates should not be relied upon.

The Camel Back claim block consists of 215 claims covering 4,100 hectares situated between the Murray Brook mining lease and the Caribou mining lease (ML246). The Caribou, Murray Brook and Restigouche deposits are all hosted within the California Lake Group. The Caribou deposit is within volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Spruce Lake Formation while the Murray Brook and Restigouche deposits are within sedimentary rocks of the Mount Britain Formation. According to geological and geophysical data, the presence of favourable stratigraphy and some untested EM anomalies shows that the Camel Back block still merits further exploration for discovering new deposits.

About VM Canada (Votorantim Metals Canada Inc.)

Votorantim Metals Canada Inc. is a subsidiary of Votorantim Metals, a company that is part of the Votorantim Group that was founded in Brazil in 1918 operates in twenty countries and has over sixty-five thousand employees. Votorantim Metals is the largest electrolytic-nickel producer in Latin America and one of the world's leaders in the production of zinc, aluminium and steel.

About El Nino Ventures

El Niño Ventures Inc. is an international exploration company, focused on exploring for Copper/Cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC") and Lead, Zinc and Copper in New Brunswick, Canada.

In Canada, El Nino holds a 50% interest in an extensive base metal project located within the Bathurst mining camp in Bathurst, New Brunswick, where earlier drilling campaigns have been carried out on several historical deposits of lead, zinc and copper mineralization within the large claim block owned 50% ELN, 50% Xstrata Zinc.

El Niño subsequently entered into an option agreement with Votorantim Metals Canada Inc. and Xstrata Zinc Canada whereby Votorantim may earn a 50% interest in El Niño's landholdings by expending $10 million over 5 years and may further increase its interest in El Niño's landholdings to 70% by expending an additional $10 million over a further two years. (Please see release dated May 4, 2010,).

In January 2011, ELN announced that it has provided notice to Votorantim Metals Canada Inc. (Votorantim) to enter into a Participation Agreement on the Murray Brook Massive Sulphide /Polymetallic Deposit, situated in the Bathurst Mining Camp in New Brunswick, Canada. (See press release dated January 20, 2011). Drilling has been initiated on this project.

In February 2011, ELN announced that a $5 million exploration program has begun consisting of airborne and ground geophysics and will include a 10,000 metre drill program which is currently underway. (See press release dated February 23, 2011).

El Nino's management is aggressively seeking to add to its already extensive property portfolio and acquire additional projects on an International scale that meet our corporate objectives. This includes base and precious metal properties within Africa and North America.

On behalf of the shareholders and board of directors of El Nino Ventures, I would like thank you for your ongoing support.

"Harry Barr"
Harry Barr, Chairman and Acting CEO
 

For further information:

Corporate: Jay Oness -- jay@elninoventures.com
Investor Relations: Toll free 1.800.667.1870
2303 West 41^st Avenue, Vancouve, B.C. V6M 2A3
Email: info@elninoventures.com

TSX Venture Exchange or 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 release.

Note:  this release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.  These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results and are based on current expectations or beliefs.  For this purpose, statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements.  In addition, forward-looking statements include statements in which the Company uses words such as "continue", "efforts", "expect", "believe", "anticipate", "confident", "intend", "strategy", "plan", "will", "estimate", "project", "goal", "target", "prospects", "optimistic" or similar expressions.  These statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially depending on a variety of important factors, including, among others, the Company's ability and continuation of efforts to timely and completely make available adequate current public information, additional or different regulatory and legal requirements and restrictions that may be imposed, and other factors as may be discussed in the documents filed by the Company on SEDAR (www.sedar.com), including the most recent reports that identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  The Company does not undertake any obligation to review or confirm analysts' expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.  Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.