Drilling Report

Tertiary Minerals PLC
14 December 2000

RELEASED ON BEHALF OF:

                            TERTIARY MINERALS PLC

                                                              DECEMBER 14 2000

                     TERTIARY'S WINTER DRILLING PROGRAMME

                         INCLUDES 'HOT METAL' TARGETS

  * Platinum Group Metals And Tantalum Added To Portfolio
  * Scandinavian Exploration Activities Extended Into Finland
  * Drilling Schedule Includes Windfall And Enasen Base/Precious Metals
    Targets





AIM-listed Tertiary Minerals, which is currently drilling in Finland for
tantalum - the new age metal used in mobile phones and laptop computers - says
it is the strong prices and demand for both tantalum and platinum group metals
over the past year which resulted in these metals being added to its existing
exploration portfolio of precious and base metals projects in Scandinavia.

In the annual report for the year ended September 30, Tertiary says these
developments resulted in the company extending its exploration activities into
Finland in August this year, selecting tantalum and caesium, another rare
metal, as its main targets. Two claim reservations have been lodged over areas
with known occurrences of these metals which typically occur in pegmatite, a
type of rock that is also a common source of feldspar and quartz, two minerals
used in the ceramics industry.

At Rosendal in south-west Finland on Kemio Island, the Geological Survey of
Finland has postulated that the pegmatite dykes contain 1.3m tonnes of
mineralised rock to a vertical depth of 100m. The grade has not been
adequately determined, but ten surface channel samples returned an average
value of 436g/t tantalum oxide (the world's largest producer, Sons of Gwalia's
Greenbushes mine in Western Australia has a reserve grade of 230g/t). The bulk
of the pegmatites comprise quartz and low-iron feldspar suitable for ceramics.

The Viitaniemi pegmatite in central-southern Finland has been quarried for
feldspar and quartz on a small scale. However, mineralogical studies have also
identified significant amounts of tantalum, caesium and lithium within the
deposit and Tertiary is awaiting the results of its recent drilling programme
of nine large diameter holes to assess the tantalum/caesium potential of
Viitaniemi.

Tertiary has two platinum group metal (PGM) projects in Sweden at Kukkola and
Flinten, as well as an active programme to generate new PGM prospects. The
primary target at Kukkola is an untested electrical conductor at least 500m
long and associated with a layered mafic-ultramafic complex. As such, its
geological setting is similar to the PGM discovery of Gold Fields/Outokumpu in
Finland's Portimo complex. The Kukkola target will be drill-tested during the
winter. Flinten is a grass-roots project in south-central Sweden on which no
work has yet been undertaken.

Tertiary also plans to drill test a number of other targets during the winter
months. These include the Windfall zinc-silver project and the Enasen
copper-gold anomaly, both located in south-central Sweden.



Further Information: Ron Marshman or Ken Gooding, COLPR Ltd. Tel: [phone]