RELEASED ON BEHALF OF TERTIARY MINERALS PLC: 3 January 2002 TERTIARY'S DUAL STRATEGY TO BECOME SIGNIFICANT PLAYER IN TANTALUM MARKET BRINGS EARLY SUCCESS AT ROSENDAL · Company Now In Position To Fast Track Development Of Finland Deposit · Search Continues For World-Class Project To Meet Forecast Market Shortfall · Losses For First Full Year On AIM Are Limited To £305,086 Tertiary Minerals Plc's decision early in 2001 to become involved in the tantalum business was stimulated by the exceptional growth in demand for the metal over the past 10 years. From the outset the company adopted a dual approach; seeking deposits that would bring near-term production whilst continuing the search for an orebody of much greater size and significance. In his statement accompanying the company's preliminary results for the year ended September 30, 2001, chairman Mr Patrick Cheetham says the first leg of the strategy has already brought rewards for the AIM-listed explorer. The company is now in a position to fast-track development of its Rosendal project in Finland, a modest-sized deposit capable of near-term production without significantly affecting world tantalum markets. Meanwhile, Tertiary continues to seek a world-class orebody capable of supplying large amounts of tantalum to the market within a 3-5 year time horizon when substantial supply deficits have been forecast. Lakefield Research in Canada, on behalf of Tertiary, has undertaken preliminary testwork on samples from Rosendal and concluded that tantalum can be readily extracted from the ore into a high-grade tantalum concentrate. Satisfactory recoveries have been achieved, not only for tantalum, but also for feldspar and quartz, the associated valuable industrial minerals present in the Rosendal ore. With this encouragement, Tertiary has commissioned the Geological Survey of Finland to undertake an economic scoping study on the Rosendal deposit. The results are expected shortly, the company adds. During the year, Tertiary's exploration efforts also focussed on platinum group metals (PGM) since the company believes the markets for both PGMs and tantalum, predominantly in high-technology applications, will continue to grow at above average rates in future. As a result, the company has made a number of exciting finds on its Finnmark project area in Norway, including the discovery of economically significant PGM mineralisation in association with low-grade copper-nickel outlined over a strike length of 2.5km on the Gallujavre prospect. Follow-up work is planned as a high priority, the chairman states. Although the company is particularly focused on tantalum and PGMs, its underlying strategy is to diversify risk. In keeping with this, Tertiary has undertaken various exploration programmes on a number of base-metal and gold projects in Scandinavia. Further details of these projects will be provided in the company's annual report, due to be published next week, says Mr Cheetham. Commenting on the company's financial position, Mr Cheetham says that until it reaches the stage of developing mining operations, losses are to be expected. The loss for the year ended September 30, 2001 was £305,086 after interest of £24,374, administration expenses of £219,220 and £110,240 written off for expenditure on abandoned exploration projects. At year-end, the company had current assets of £332,050 including cash resources of £293,735. Further information: Patrick Cheetham, Tertiary Minerals. Tel: 01625-626203 Ron Marshman, City of London PR. Tel: 020-7628-5518