Drilling Report

Tertiary Minerals PLC
4 October 2001

                            TERTIARY MINERALS PLC

PHASE I TESTWORK ON ROSENDAL TANTALUM DEPOSIT SHOWS 95% OF ORE HAS COMMERCIAL
                                    VALUE

  * High-Grade tantalum concentrate can be produced by relatively simple
    processing plant

  * Marketable industrial minerals also recoverable as by-products

  * Planning underway for next stage of project evaluation

Tertiary Minerals plc is pleased to report that the completion of Phase 1
metallurgical testwork on samples from its Rosendal tantalum deposit in
south-west Finland has shown the pegmatite ore is mineralogically simple and
that tantalum can be recovered in a relatively simple processing plant. In
addition, most of the other constituents of the Rosendal ore are commercially
valuable industrial minerals which can be recovered as marketable by-products.

The testwork, on samples collected on Tertiary's behalf by the Geological
Survey of Finland, was undertaken by Lakefield Research, an independent
Canadian laboratory. It included detailed mineralogical investigations, six
gravity concentration tests and two flotation tests. The results of the first
two gravity tests were reported in August this year.

In their final report Lakefield concluded that:


  * Respectable recovery of tantalum from the Rosendal pegmatite ore can be
    achieved using gravity concentration which yields a high-grade concentrate
    averaging over 30%. tantalum pentoxide.

  * Sodium feldspar can be recovered from the gravity tailings and a
    premium-grade feldspar concentrate was produced in the preliminary tests.

  * Additional marketable products of mica and quartz were produced as
    by-products of the above tests.

  * The Rosendal ore contains a minimal amount of waste material; the
    various marketable minerals (tantalum, feldspar, quartz and mica)
    recovered during the testwork represent approximately 95% of the raw ore.

The Lakefield testwork also showed that the tantalite in the Rosendal ore is
present as the high-grade ferrotantalite and ferrotapiolite minerals and that
commercial recoveries of tantalum can be achieved at relatively coarse grind
sizes and without sizing the ground ore.

The Rosendal pegmatite is estimated by the Geological Survey of Finland to
contain 1.3 million tonnes of material to a vertical depth of 100 metres with
an average grade of 289 grammes/tonne tantalum pentoxide estimated from
previous surface sampling and limited drilling. The deposit is located on the
coast adjacent to an existing industrial minerals processing plant and
ship-loading facilities.

Planning is underway for the next stage of evaluation of the Rosendal deposit
which will include infill drilling and economic scoping studies.

Further Information:

Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals. Tel: [phone]

John Greenhalgh, City of London PR. Tel: [phone]