New project acquisition

Tertiary Minerals PLC
4 February 2002


                             TERTIARY MINERALS PLC

   TERTIARY WINS EXPLORATION RIGHTS IN SAUDI ARABIA TO WORLD'S LARGEST KNOWN
                                TANTALUM DEPOSIT

  • Saudi Asset Overlooked By Lack Of Information Access And Market Conditions
  • Advances In Mineral Processing The Key To Early Exploitation
  • Deposit Characterised By Remarkable Grade Consistency And Continuity
  • Company Encouraged By New Mining Code And Availability Of Soft Loans

Tertiary Minerals plc is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a
five-year exclusive exploration licence over the Ghurayyah tantalum/rare-metal
deposit in Saudi Arabia, reportedly* the world's largest known tantalum deposit.
The licence from the Saudi Government is renewable for up to nine years and
gives Tertiary the right to acquire a 50-year mining lease on the 47 km sq area.

SRK Consulting, on behalf of Tertiary, has estimated the deposit to contain a
bulk tonnage, open pittable, Inferred Mineral Resource, to a depth of
approximately 250m, of:

385 million tonnes grading :                245 g/t tantalum pentoxide (Ta205)

                                           2,840 g/t niobium pentoxide (Nb205)

                                              8,915 g/t zirconium oxide (Zr02)

This resource remains open below 250m and contains 208 million pounds (94,000
tonnes) of Ta205 (worth in excess of $15bn at a price of US$75/lb of Ta205),
more than the combined published reserves/resources at the Greenbushes and
Wodgina mines in Western Australia which currently account for around 30p.c. of
world tantalum minerals output.

Ghurayyah is located in the Midyan region of north-west Saudi Arabia, 85km
south-west of the regional city of Tabuk and 55km from the Red Sea. Although
explored on behalf of the Saudi Government by Watts, Griffis and McOuat (WGM) in
1978 and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1999, the Company
believes that Ghurayyah has been overlooked by most exploration companies due to
the previous difficulties in gaining access to information and the fact that the
WGM work in particular was undertaken at a time when the global demand for
tantalum was a fraction of what it is today and prices were significantly lower.
Since then the market for tantalum has been transformed by the explosive growth
in demand from the electronics industry (accounting for over 50p.c. of annual
consumption) for use in mobile phones, laptop computers and other portable
devices, and the price of the metal has increased accordingly.

Whilst Saudi Arabia is recognised for holding one quarter of the world's oil
reserves, the country's mineral endowment is less well known. However, the
government has recently proclaimed the mineral sector as a development priority
and has set ambitious growth targets. A new Mining Code conforming to best
international practice is awaiting Royal assent.

Although modern gold mining operations have been developed under State control,
Saudi Arabia has only recently encouraged involvement of international mining
companies. Apart from the drafting of the new Mining Code, a number of other
legislative changes have been made during the past two years with the objective
of increasing foreign investor interest in Saudi Arabia, including its mining
sector. In April 2000, a new Foreign Investment Law was issued under which:


  • Foreign investors can own 100p.c. of a business with no local partner
    required


  • Foreign investors can benefit from incentives previously available only to
    local companies such as soft project development loans


  • Profits tax reduced from 45p.c. to 30p.c. and losses can be carried
    forward indefinitely.



The Saudi Government has also established the Geological Survey of Saudi Arabia
in order to remove a barrier to accessing geological information in the country
and this has enabled Tertiary to carry out a detailed assessment of Ghurayyah
(extending over almost twelve months) during the licence application process.
The licence was awarded against strong local competition.

DEPOSIT AMENABLE TO LOW-COST OPEN PIT MINING

Ghurayyah is a 900m diameter plug of alkali granite outcropping with positive
relief of up to 56m above the confluence of two wadi systems. It is reported to
contain fine-grained columbite-tantalite and coarser grained zircon as the
principal economic minerals of tantalum-niobium and zirconium respectively with
possibly minor amounts contained in associated uranium, thorium and rare-earth
minerals.

The SRK Inferred Mineral Resource estimate has been reported according to the
Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy's JORC Code and is based on 13
reverse circulation and diamond drillholes. The solid geometry of mineralisation
and the consistency of grade distribution, illustrated in the attached table
below, suggests Ghurayyah is amenable to low cost open pit mining. SRK considers
that the entire resource tonnage is potentially economically mineable by an open
pit method and a cut off grade has not therefore been applied.

Summary Of All Drill Hole Intersections - Ghurayyah

Drill Hole    From      To        Interval    Ta2O5      Nb205      Zr02       Drill method      Collar Dip/azimuth

Number        M         m         m           G/t        g/t        g/t        RC/DD

1978

GH 1          0.0       300.0     300.0       315        3,460      11,628     DD              -50deg to 024deg

GH 2          0.0       250.2     250.2       291        3,218      10,272     DD              -50deg to 201deg

GH 3          0.0       250.0     250.0       222        3,155      9,771      DD              -50deg to 180deg

GH 4          0.0       300.0     300.0       315        3,460      11,628     DD              -55deg to 338deg

GH 5          28.3      250.0     221.7       218        3,110      9,910      DD              -50deg to 135deg

1999

99-1          2.0       100.2     98.2        359        2,764      9,968      RC/DD             Vertical

99-2          2.0       100.0     98.0        277        2,796      10,191     RC                Vertical

99-3          4.0       86.0      82.0        230        2,593      8,391      RC                Vertical

99-4          2.0       100.0     98.0        245        2,687      9,100      RC                Vertical

99-5          2.0       100.0     98.0        224        2,601      8,788      RC                Vertical

99-6          2.0       100.0     98.0        183        2,675      9,105      RC                Vertical

99-7          2.0       42.0      40.0        235        2,195      7,171      RC                Vertical

99-8          2.0       250.0     248.0       218        2,049      6,643      DD              -57deg to 360deg

99-9          4.0       114.0     110.0       213        2,286      6,859      DD              -59deg to 133deg

99-10         2.0       200.2     198.2       232        2,548      7,615      DD              -60deg to 057deg

99-11         4.0       200.0     196.0       254        2,585      7,353      DD              -59deg to 328deg

99-13         4.0       150.0     146.0       229        2,723      8,141      DD              -55deg to 200deg


RC= Reverse Circulation drilling , DD=Diamond drilling

Around 10 million tonnes of the estimated resource outcrops above wadi level
offering the possibility of a zero waste stripping ratio for the first few years
of mining. Thereafter, waste strip-ratios will be very low.

Metallurgical testwork on behalf of WGM in 1978 defined at least one possible
flowsheet which achieved overall recoveries of 77%. of tantalum and 80% of
niobium into separate, purified, marketable products. The test laboratory also
indicated that higher recoveries should be possible with process refinement and
flowsheet optimisation. Furthermore, since this work was undertaken, significant
advances have been made in the recovery of fine-grained tantalum and niobium
minerals.

Tertiary has proposed a three-phase work programme over the term of the licence,
leading to the completion of a bankable feasibility study, and phased
expenditure of 13.3 million Saudi Riyals (approx. £3.3 million), of which only
702,000 Saudi Riyals (approx. £130,000) is required expenditure within the
first, 18 month phase.

The first phase of the work programme will focus on mineralogical and
metallurgical testwork to provide a detailed understanding of mineralisation and
determine the lowest cost production route to marketable products. This phase
will also include economic scoping studies. During this period Tertiary will
give priority to establishing the industry relationships necessary to ensure
successful development of the project with the objective of positioning the
company to meet forecast future demand increases for tantalum. The market for
tantalum powder in capacitors has grown at an annual rate of 18% since 1993 and
at 34% in 2000.

The company regards development of Ghurayyah as a medium term objective that
will complement its much smaller Rosendal project in Finland (1.3 million tonnes
grading 289g/t tantalum pentoxide) which could be brought into production within
two years. A recent independent scoping study shows Rosendal to be an
economically attractive development proposition with payback of just over two
years and an internal rate of return of 33p.c. This is based on a 150,000tpa
open pit mining operation yielding an annual average of 66,000lbs of tantalum
pentoxide and 84,000t of feldspar concentrates.

Further Information:

Patrick Cheetham,Tertiary Minerals plc. Tel: [phone]; mobile: [phone]

Ron Marshman/John Greenhalgh, City of London PR Ltd. Tel: [phone]

(*Laznika. P 1999. Quantitive Relationships Among Giant Deposits of Metals.
Economic Geology Volume 94, number 4)


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