New Drill Target Plans

Tertiary Minerals PLC
9 August 2000



                     Tertiary Minerals plc
                                                              
                               
     TERTIARY PLANS TO PINPOINT NEW DRILL TARGET IN SWEDEN
           WITHIN 'STRONG AND WELL-DEFINED' ANOMALY
          NEAR BOLIDEN'S OLD ENASEN GOLD-COPPER MINE
                               
- Position And Orientation Suggest New Zone Of
  Mineralisation, Says Chairman
  
- Separate 'See-Through' MMI Sampling Technique Confirms
  Anomaly's Features


AIM-listed  Tertiary Minerals plc ('Tertiary') has outlined  a
'strong  and  well  defined' gold-copper  anomaly  by  surface
sampling  on exploration permits which surround the now-closed
Enasen  mine  in  central Sweden from which Boliden  extracted
1.7m  tonnes  of gold-copper ore between 1984 and  1991.   The
anomaly  has not been fully delineated by the existing  sample
grid  and  Tertiary is planning further sampling in  order  to
define a drill target.

  'Whilst  surface  geochemical anomalies  in  Sweden  can  be
complex  due  to  the  extensive  cover  of  glacial  material
('till')  deposited during the last ice-age, this is a  strong
and  well-defined anomaly', says Tertiary chairman Mr  Patrick
Cheetham.  'It is close to the existing mine but its  position
and  orientation  relative to the direction  of  ice  movement
suggests  it  may  point to a new zone of mineralisation',  he
adds.

The  Enasen  mine  area  is one of four  target  areas  within
Tertiary's  Juniper Ridge project which were sampled  in  June
and July. The Enasen area was targeted because of its existing
gold-copper  mine whereas the Kolaberget, Grundviksberget  and
Kroktjarn  targets  were defined by previous government-funded
regional  geochemical sampling programmes. Tertiary  collected
more  than 700 traditional surface till samples from the  four
target areas and over 100 Mobile Metal Ion (MMI) samples  from
Enasen and Kroktjarn.

Most  analytical  results have now been  received  and  whilst
anomalies  occur  on  all  of  the  target  areas   the   most
significant is at Enasen where very strong coincident gold and
copper anomalies have been found in surface till within a  few
hundred  meters of the existing open pit. This anomaly extends
along  the  NW-SE  ice  direction over a  number  of  adjacent
sampling  lines. Anomalous values range up to 189ppb gold  and
347ppm  copper  and  average 49ppb  gold  and  115ppm  copper.
Background values average 5ppb gold and 25ppm copper.

Separate  MMI  samples  collected at Enasen  are  also  highly
anomalous  in gold, copper and silver. At the NW  end  of  the
sample  grid the MMI and surface till anomalies are coincident
suggesting that this is close to the source mineralisation.

MMI  is  a  technique  designed to 'see  through'  transported
glacial overburden and detect subtle anomalies directly  above
the   bedrock  source  of  mineralisation.  Tertiary  is  also
applying  the  technique,  which was originally  developed  in
Australia,  at  its  Windfall  zinc-silver  project  area   in
historic  Bergslagen mining district of south-central  Sweden,
and results are awaited.

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

Ron Marshman or Ken Gooding, City of London  PR.
Tel: [phone]