Drilling Report

Tertiary Minerals PLC
29 January 2003



                            www.tertiaryminerals.com

                              QUARTERLY REPORT ON

                             EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES

                     FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 30 DECEMBER 2002

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                                   HIGHLIGHTS

GHURAYYAH               Metallurgical Testwork Achieves Objectives To Add
                        Significant Value

                        90-fold Upgrade From Ore To Concentrate with favourable 
                        Recoveries of Tantalum, Niobium and Yttrium/Rare-Earths

                        Economic & Technical Scoping Study Initiated

ROSENDAL                Metallurgical Testwork confirms high recoveries and 
                        concentrate grades obtained in bench scale testwork.

FINLAND IOCG PROJECTS   Data compilation and review prompts further land 
                        acquisition for Olympic Dam style iron-oxide-copper-gold 
                        targets

PROJECTS


                        ____________________________________________________



INTRODUCTION

This report gives details of exploration work carried out during the quarter
ended 30 December 2002 and up to the date of this report, and the results for
the period.



TANTALUM PROJECTS

GHURAYYAH (Saudi Arabia) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

During the quarter Tertiary Minerals plc announced that it had successfully
developed and tested a flowsheet for the treatment of the Ghurayyah tantalum/
rare-metal deposit in Saudi Arabia.

Using industry standard mineral processing techniques of flotation and magnetic
separation, testwork has produced a concentrate containing 35.3% combined
tantalum, niobium and yttrium/rare-earth oxides with commercially favourable
recoveries of 71% and 65% for tantalum and niobium respectively and undetermined
but significant recoveries of yttrium and rare-earth oxides. This represents a
90-fold upgrading of the tantalum and niobium values contained in the rock.
Previously only considered as valuable for tantalum, the current testwork has
shown that both niobium and yttrium values may be recovered.

Further research is required to determine the market value of the concentrate
but Ghurayyah's large size and potential long mine life will support value-added
processing of the concentrate on-site. A number of commercially proven
processing technologies could be applicable.

The results represent a 10-fold improvement in concentrate grade compared to
that obtained in previous metallurgical testwork on which all previous technical
and financial evaluations have been based. Tertiary has therefore commissioned
London based St Barbara Consulting to carry out an economic and technical
scoping study for development of Ghurayyah.

The broad objectives of the study are to:


  • carry out mine and process design, capital and operating cost estimates
    for a mining, concentration and concentrate processing operations based on
    the bulk-mineable Ghurayyah tantalum-niobium resource,

  • evaluate production of both tantalum and niobium in both concentrate and
    added-value form and assess the value of by-product yttrium, zircon and
    rare-earth oxides,

  • to consider water supply requirements and water sources and identify
    critical environment issues relating to the project,

  • define a scope of work and budget for a preliminary feasibility study, and

  • carry out comprehensive financial modelling of the project.

The study will be managed by St Barbara's senior mineral processing consultant
Richard Wilkinson, a metallurgist/chemical engineer, who was formerly in charge
of mineral processing research at Billiton Research. Mr Wilkinson has recently
been advising the Company on its metallurgical development programme. St Barbara
will carry out the process design for ore concentration and concentrate
processing options. SRK Consulting will design and cost the mining operations
whilst GBM Minerals Engineering Consultants will cost the processing plant and
infrastructure. Financial modelling will be carried out with input from Merchant
Bridge Limited, a Merchant Bank specialising in the Middle-East.

The study will be based on the Inferred Minerals Resource previously estimated
by SRK Consulting at 385 million tonnes grading 245 g/t tantalum pentoxide
(Ta205), 2,840 g/t niobium pentoxide (Nb205), and 8,915 g/t zirconium oxide
(Zr02). It will be completed by the end of February 2003.

The Ghurayyah metallurgical testwork programme received financial support from
British Offset, a joint initiative of the British Ministry of Defence and BAE
SYSTEMS supporting new projects in Saudi Arabia through project financing
assistance and the provision of soft loans. British Offset is also funding
Merchant Bridge's contribution to the scoping study.

ROSENDAL (Finland) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

The Company has recently received the results from a programme of metallurgical
testwork carried out by CSMA Consultants Ltd using spiral concentrators and
other commercial gravity separation equipment.

The testwork, using samples composited from diamond drill-core from three
different parts of the Rosendal dyke, has confirmed earlier bench-scale testwork
results. High-grade tantalum concentrates were produced (32-43% Ta205) with
acceptable recoveries (60-77%). CSMA estimate that a recovery of 70% of the
contained tantalum at Rosendal will be possible in commercial practice.

Capital and operating costs estimates are being finalised for the project and
pit optimisation studies carried out.

GOLD & BASE METAL PROJECTS

FINLAND COPPER-GOLD PROJECT - 100% Tertiary

Tertiary recently announced a major initiative to explore for Olympic Dam style
iron-oxide-copper-gold ('IOCG') deposits in Finland. Such deposits are typically
large, and have become one of the large deposit types sought by major mining
companies today.

During the quarter the Company commissioned the Geological Survey of Finland to
undertake a compilation of available data for the claims and claim reservations
acquired last quarter. This work has highlighted a number of additional targets
and applications are now being made for a further 34 claim/claim reservations.

Significant amounts of drill core remain from previous iron exploration and
mining campaigns within Tertiary's project areas. A programme of core re-logging
and re-assaying will start in February as most of this core has never been
evaluated for copper-gold mineralisation.



OTHER PROJECTS

No significant work was carried out on the Company's other projects during the
quarter. The current status of the Company's projects is given in the 2002
Annual Report sent to shareholders last December.





Patrick L. Cheetham          29 January 2003

Executive Chairman



For further information contact: Tel: [phone], or visit the Company's
website: www.tertiaryminerals.com


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