Drill Programme

Tertiary Minerals PLC
17 November 2004



                             TERTIARY MINERALS PLC

                  DRILLING RESUMES AT KAARESSELKA GOLD PROJECT
                              IN NORTHERN FINLAND

   • High Grade Targets At Vanha And Tienvarsi
   • Near Surface Target At Lampi
   • Results Expected Early In New Year
_____________________________________________________________________

Tertiary Minerals plc ('the Company') is pleased to announce that a further
drilling programme has now started at its Kaaresselka gold project in northern
Finland where three zones of mineralisation have been identified by previous
drilling in an area 1.1km by 0.6km. This earlier drilling returned a number of
high-grade intersections from both the near-surface weathered zone and the
underlying fresh rock and confirmed that gold mineralisation is distributed over
a wide area.

The new programme will concentrate on the Vanha zone to test for extensions to
high-grade mineralisation encountered in hole 04KD007B reported by the Company
earlier this year (4.90m thickness grading 11.0 grammes/tonne ('g/t') from
74.80m down-hole). Previous drilling results from this zone include 3m grading
7.2g/t gold in hole RC5 and 1.4m grading 22g/t gold in hole R436, both drilled
by the Geological Survey of Finland.

Further drilling will also test for extensions to gold mineralisation
encountered at the south-east end of the Tienvarsi zone where it is open along
strike from Tertiary's drill-hole 04KD005 which intersected 2.75m grading 
13.5g/t gold from 15.45m depth.

In addition, trenching and possible follow-up drilling is planned to evaluate
the Lampi zone where the Company has reported an intersection of 10.3m grading
3.88g/t gold near surface but where the geometry of the mineralisation needs
further investigation.

Drilling will continue into mid-December with results expected in January 2005.

For further information please contact:

Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: [phone]
626203
Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Limited. Tel: [phone]
5518


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