November 3, 2003

TERTIARY WINS CLAIM TO GOLD DEPOSIT IN N. FINLAND AFTER TWO YEARS OF PATIENT MONITORING

• Several Zones Of Potentially High-Grade Gold Mineralisation
• Previous Drill Intersects Include 2m Of 45g/t Gold And Several Holes Of 3m At 10+g/t
• Company Plans Winter Drilling Campaign To Define Gold Resource

AIM-listed Tertiary Minerals plc (“Tertiary”) today announces that it has been awarded a key claim over a series of gold deposits at Kaaresselkä in Northern Finland. The award follows more than two years’ monitoring of lapsing claims covering a number of potentially high grade deposits in the district. Previous drilling of the area in which Tertiary has its interest was carried out by the Geological Survey of Finland (“The Survey”) which put down 10,000m of diamond core drilling in 185 shallow holes. The project area has well developed infrastructure and is accessed by a network of logging roads.

Tertiary plans to start a drilling programme this winter to define resources. It will benefit from the excellent platform of extensive exploration data already collected by The Survey.

The Company has applied for six claims at Kaaresselkä following their recent lapsing with the key claim – containing most of the mineralisation - already granted. Several parallel gold-mineralised structures are reported within an open-ended area of 1.1 x 0.6km, one of which is at least 650m long. From its drilling of two shallow, open ended 200m long zones, The Survey estimates a volume of at least 160,000 cubic metres of mineralised material grading between 1 and 10g/t gold and between 0.2p.c. and 2p.c. copper to the maximum drilled depth of 55m from surface. Mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike into Tertiary’s other five claim applications.

The Survey reported a best drill intersection of 2m grading 45g/t gold and several drill intersections of 3m grading better than 10g/t gold. The gold occurs as free gold, sometimes visible in drill core.

After the Kaaresselkä gold deposits were discovered by the Geological Survey the project was put up for sale by international tender by the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry in June 2001.

Patrick Cheetham, Tertiary’s executive chairman said today: “Although the tender was never awarded, it is understood that the project was to be sold to Terra Mining Oy, then operating a mine 15km away, but the sale was interrupted when the company, together with its parent, went into bankruptcy.

“Previous drilling was hampered by the mineralised zones being deeply weathered which made for poor core recovery and hindering a detailed resource estimate. However, weathering is a bonus when it comes to mining as the rock is softer and more easily extracted”.

The explored area is just one part of the prospective Kaaresselkä Shear Zone in the 4.5km long project area on land owned by the Finnish Government and under claim application by Tertiary. The Shear Zone itself is associated with the Sirkka Break, a major geological feature associated with gold mineralisation in Central Lappland.

Two projects previously tendered by the Finnish Government in this part of Northern Finland, Pahtavaara (120,000 ounces gold produced to date - Scan Mining AB) and Suurikuusikko (2 million+ ounce gold resource - Riddarhytten Resources), have become significant mining and development projects.

The Kaaresselkä gold project is a welcome addition to Tertiary’s diversified portfolio. “Importantly it will provide our shareholders with a significant exposure to the buoyant gold market”, said Mr Cheetham.

Other projects where Tertiary plans drilling this winter include the Ahmavuoma copper-gold project and the Notträsk nickel project, both in Sweden.

NOTE: A more detailed report on Kaaresselkä, issued with the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry tender invitation in June 2001 can be found on the following website:
www.gsf.fi/explor/tender/kaaresselka/kaaresselka.htm

Further info: Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc.
Tel: 01625-626203

John Greenhalgh/Ron Marshman, City of London PR Ltd.
Tel: 0207-628 5518