Agmt financing of Ghurayyah

Tertiary Minerals PLC
07 December 2005



                              TERTIARY MINERALS PLC
                                        
               SAUDI COMPANIES BACK TERTIARY WITH FUNDING PACKAGE
                                        
                        FOR GHURAYYAH FEASIBILITY STUDIES


   • US$7m Financing Includes Placing of 5 Million Tertiary Shares At 100%
     Premium
   • Tertiary To Retain 50% of World's Largest Tantalum Project after
     Bankable Feasibility Study
   • Local Project Financing Environment May Minimise Equity Requirement On
     US$100m Project

Tertiary Minerals plc ('Tertiary' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce that
it has signed a Preliminary Agreement with a consortium of Saudi Arabian
investors ('the Consortium') that will provide a funding package of up to US$7
million for the completion of Preliminary and Bankable feasibility studies for
the development of the Company's world-class Ghurayyah tantalum-niobium project
in Saudi Arabia. Assuming successful completion of these studies a special
purpose vehicle, funded and owned equally by Tertiary and the Consortium, will
be incorporated to develop the Ghurayyah deposit.

The Consortium comprises two of Saudi Arabia's leading family companies -
A.H.Algosaibi & Bros. Co. and AlNahla Trading & Contracting Co. Both are
diversified industrial companies with a range of domestic and international
business interests. This joint venture is believed to be the first minerals
based joint venture to be established between Saudi and foreign companies under
the terms of the current Saudi Investment Code and the newly introduced Mining
Code.

Under the Preliminary Agreement the Consortium will immediate subscribe £500,000
for 5,000,000 new ordinary shares in Tertiary Minerals plc at a price of 10
pence per share, representing a 100% premium over the current market price. The
parties will then seek to implement a binding joint venture agreement based on
the terms of the Preliminary Agreement whereby the cost of the Preliminary
Feasibility study, estimated at US$2,000,000 will be funded US$300,000 by
Tertiary, US$850,000 from the issue to the Consortium of zero-coupon convertible
loan notes and a further US$850,000 direct contribution to the joint venture
expenses from the Consortium. The loan notes will be convertible to ordinary
shares in Tertiary at any time prior to completion of the Preliminary
Feasibility Study at a price equal to the higher of 15p per share or 80% of the
weighted average market price in the 30 days prior to conversion. The share
placement and full conversion of the loan notes would result in the Consortium
holding a 15% interest in the enlarged issued share capital of Tertiary.
The costs of a subsequent Bankable Feasibility Study, estimated at US$5 million,
will be met 90% by the Consortium and 10% by Tertiary by direct contribution to
joint venture expenses.

On construction, the project partners will seek to maximise the benefit of
favourable debt funding available in Saudi Arabia, including that from the Saudi
Industrial Development Fund and the Al Yamamah Offset programme, which could
reduce Tertiary's project equity requirement to as little as 6.5% of the
US$75-100 million total capital costs of the project estimated in the 2003
Scoping Study.

Commenting today, Mr Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman of Tertiary said:
'This agreement is a major step forward in unlocking the huge potential of the
Ghurayyah deposit. The agreement comes at a time when the tantalum market has
substantially recovered from the volatility of the year 2000 'electronics
bubble' and demand is now growing at 5-8% per year. I believe that Ghurayyah has
the potential to become a significant supplier to this exciting market and I
look forward to working with our new partners to bring Ghurayyah to production.'

Tantalum Background

Tantalum's has the ability to store and release electronic charge and its main
use is in the manufacture of capacitors, components that regulate the flow of
electricity in electronic circuit boards. Capacitors are widely used in most
electronic devices, especially mobile phones, digital cameras, DVD,s gaming
platforms and laptops.

Being inert, with a high melting point, tantalum is also used in medical
implants and in special alloys for the aerospace industry where the markets are
also expanding. With increasing demand from China as its processing and
electronics industries develop, demand has recovered to its pre-bubble record
levels. Raw material demand is currently 5,000,000 lbs/year tantalum pentoxide
and growing at an estimated 5-8% per year, after averaging over 8% annual growth
in the 1990's.

Major Western raw material processors currently source the majority of their raw
material supply on long-term contracts from Sons of Gwalia's hard-rock mining
operations in Western Australia. Another significant supplier of raw materials
to the market is the U.S. Defence Logistics Agency, which traditionally sells
around 500,000lbs per annum of tantalum pentoxide in concentrates. However, its
stockpile will be depleted within 12 months at current disposal rates.

Ghurayyah Project

Tertiary Minerals plc's Ghurayyah Ta-Nb-Zr-U-REE
(tantalum-niobium-zircon-uranium-rare-earth element) deposit is located in NW
Saudi Arabia, 55km from the Red Sea port of Dhuba. An Inferred Mineral Resource
of nearly 400 million tonnes grading 245 grammes/tonne of Ta2O5 and 2,840
grammes/tonne of Nb205 is defined by drilling of a 900m diameter plug of
mineralised granite, open at depth. The deposit exhibits remarkable grade
continuity, no internal waste, and can be extracted by cheap open-pit mining
methods. The fine-grained Ta and Nb containing ore-minerals can be concentrated
by flotation with good recoveries with subsequent magnetic separation of a
zircon by-product. A number of different processing routes have been considered
for production of marketable products, including a Fe-Nb-Ta alloy. A detailed
economic and technical scoping study suggests the deposit has commercial
potential as a future source of supply of tantalum, niobium and zircon raw
materials and at an extraction rate of 1.5 million tonnes/year would have a mine
life of over 200 years. The extraction of significant contents of uranium and
rare-earth-element has yet to be evaluated.

For further information please contact:

Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: + 44 (0)
1625-626203

Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Limited. Tel: +44 (0)
20-7628-5518


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