Drilling Report

Tertiary Minerals PLC
31 October 2001


                            TERTIARY MINERALS PLC

 QUARTERLY REPORT ON EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER
                                     2001

HIGHLIGHTS

FINNMARK PLATINUM GROUP METAL ('PGM') PROJECT

  * Strike length of PGM mineralisation extended at Porsvann & Karenhaugen;
    values up to 6.6 g/t Pd+Pt+Au from undrilled western end of Karenhaugen.
  * PGM values to 2.45g/t Pt+Pd+Au in nickel-copper sulphide zone found over
    2.5km in 10km long Gallujavri intrusive.
  * Follow up, including drilling, will test for nickel-copper massive
    sulphides as well as PGMs at Gallujavri.

ROSENDAL TANTALUM PROJECT

  * Testwork shows 95% of ore has commercial value.
  * High-Grade tantalum concentrate can be produced by relatively simple
    processing plant.
  * Planning underway for scoping and pre-feasibility studies.

DJURAGRUVAN BASE METAL PROJECT

  * 3km long geochemical anomaly revealed in association with high-grade
    zinc boulder train.
  * Geophysical programme in progress to define drill targets.

INTRODUCTION

This report gives details of exploration work carried out during the quarter
ended 30 September 2001 and up to the date of this report, and the results for
the period.

PLATINUM GROUP METAL ('PGM') & NICKEL-COPPER PROJECTS

FINNMARK PROJECT (Norway) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

The Company has completed the Summer field programme on its Finnmark platinum
group metal ('PGM') project in Norway.

Exploration has been carried out by SRK Consultants of Toronto, Canada
('SRK'), in conjunction with geologists from Tertiary Minerals. The aim of the
programme has been to define drill targets through a better understanding of
the controls on PGM mineralisation at Porsvann and Karenhaugen and the
evaluation of the Company's 10 claim blocks by reconnaissance mapping and
sampling.

This work has been successful in extending the strike length of known PGM
mineralisation at both the Karenhaugen and Porsvann prospects and has
highlighted the Gallujavri ultramafic intrusive, the largest so far found in
the N.Karasjok greenstone belt, as the highest priority target following the
discovery of economically interesting grades of PGM's in association with low
grade Ni-Cu sulphide mineralisation, now known to occur over at least 2.5km of
the 10km long ultramafic intrusive.

As the discovery of economically interesting PGM values at Gallujavri occurred
during the later part of the Summer season, only limited follow up work has
been possible to-date.

Porsvann

Previous work by the Norwegian Geological Survey ('NGU') in the early 1990's
identified surface PGM anomalism and tested a 120m strike length of the
prospect with a small drilling programme. This encountered wide intervals of
low-grade PGM mineralisation as previously reported.

Work this Summer focussed on further profile sampling and geological mapping.
Mineralisation at Porsvann was found to comprise disseminated pyrite/
pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite within a pyroxenite sill intruded along the base
of a gabbro and thrust into the underlying metasediments. The style of
mineralisation at Porsvann is atypical for ultramafic intrusions but it is
thought to be of primary magmatic origin and the highest grades of PGM's
appear to be located at the base of the intrusion.

Further profile sampling has returned values up to 6.85 grammes per tonne ('g/
t') palladium+platinum+gold ('Pd+Pt+Au') and the strike length containing
economically interesting grades has so-far been doubled to 240m. The highest
grades of mineralisation are usually found at the base of the intrusive.
Detailed mapping suggests that, in the area drilled, the pyroxenite is
complexly folded and that previous drill holes may not have tested its full
thickness. SRK have proposed a number of drill holes to test this further.

Mapping and sampling indicates that the ultramafic thins to the north of the
existing drilling, but to the south of the most southerly drill hole PV4
(which intersected 17m grading 1.27 g/t Pt+Pd) its extension is covered by a
lake and fluvioglacial deposits.

As at Karenhaugen, the relatively small size of the host intrusion at Porsvann
suggests that strike extensions to the existing drilled mineralisation will
need to be found to maintain a viable exploration target and SRK have
recommended a programme of induced polarisation ('IP') and magnetic surveys to
trace the southern extent of the mineralised ultramafic under cover.

Karenhaugen.

PGM mineralisation at Karenhaugen is similarly hosted by a pyroxenite sill,
but there are two distinct styles of mineralisation. A zone of primary PGM
bearing pyrite/pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-bornite mineralisation appears to have
been later remobilised into secondary shear zones where it occurs as PGM
bearing chalcocite (-malachite) mineralisation.

Previous drilling by NGU has tested a limited 140m strike length of the
intrusion at its eastern end. Mapping and surface sampling this season has
shown that mineralisation occurs throughout the exposed 500m length of the
intrusion, with assays up to 6.6ppm Pd+Pt+Au from the undrilled western end.
The western end of the prospect is defined by a lake and to the west of this
lake a further 300m strike length of possibly related pyroxenite has been
found and has returned anomalous PGM values from limited surface
reconnaissance.

Gallujavri

The Gallujavri intrusion is the largest known intrusion in the Company's
exploration area. It trends north-south, has an outcrop thickness of over 500m
and a probable strike length of over 10km.

Exploration for nickel during 1978-82 found low-grade nickel-copper sulphide
mineralisation during shallow drilling of two 500m spaced mineralised
outcrops. PGM analyses were not made during this period but a later surface
sample collected by NGU from a third mineralised outcrop some 2.5km to the
north returned a value of 0.5g/t Pd+Pt+Au.

This Summer, the Company's prospecting activity has resulted in the discovery
of economically interesting grades of PGM mineralisation in two grab samples
taken 60m apart along the strike of the ultramafic in a fourth mineralised
area. These samples also contained discontinuous low-grade nickel and copper
sulphide mineralisation of the type discovered during the 1978 programme and
assayed 2.00 and 2.45 g/t Pt+Pd+Au, as follows:


Sample   Platinum   Palladium  Gold       Pt+Pd+Au   Nickel  Copper  Sulphur
Number   g/t (ppm)  g/t (ppm)  g/t (ppm)  g/t (ppm)  %       %       %
P352161  1.10         1.05       0.30       2.45       0.31    0.29    0.68

         
P352163    0.75      1.00       0.25       2.00       0.42    0.42    1.25

        

The samples were taken 1.5km south of the above NGU sample, and between 500m
and 1km north of the previously drilled low-grade nickel-copper sulphide
mineralisation.

Work to date, therefore, indicates a 2.5km strike length within which low
grade Ni-Cu mineralisation has been found at four locations, with associated
PGM mineralisation up to 2.45g/t Pt+Pd+Au. Rock exposure is less than 5% in
this area and so continuity of mineralisation is unknown, but these results
are considered to be highly encouraging.

The Gallujavri ultramafic is significantly different from the smaller
intrusions at Porsvann and Karenhaugen. It is a more primitive olivine bearing
intrusion and the associated low-grade copper-nickel mineralisation is more
obviously of primary-magmatic origin. The ratio of platinum to palladium is
also different - 1:1 Pt/Pd as opposed to 3:1 Pd/Pt at Porsvann and
Karenhaugen.

The nickel values of samples from Gallujavri plot in the sulphur-saturated
field and analytical results recalculated to 100% sulphides show
nickel-in-sulphide tenors of 11-17% indicating the potential for the
separation of significant volumes of high-grade nickel sulphide minerals.

The potential is considered excellent for the discovery of Ni-Cu-PGM massive
sulphides near the unexposed base of the intrusion, where sulphide ponding may
have occurred, and also for the further discovery of disseminated sulphides
containing economic grades of PGM's. Of particular interest are two TURAM
electromagnetic anomalies under lake Gallujavri which run parallel to the
interpreted base of the ultramafic and which have never been tested despite
being the strongest anomalies discovered during the 1978-82 exploration.

A programme of follow up magnetic and electromagnetic surveying will take
place immediately ice-conditions permit access over lake Gallujavri. Diamond
drilling of geophysical targets will follow, most likely in early Spring 2002.

Other targets.

During the Summer programme reconnaissance sampling was carried out on
numerous individual mineral occurrences. The data from this work is still
being evaluated but above detection limit PGM values have been returned from a
number of additional intrusions confirming the Company's belief that its
holdings in the N.Karasjok greenstone belt represent an exciting PGM and Ni-Cu
exploration opportunity for the Company.

PGM PROJECTS - SWEDEN - Tertiary Minerals 100%

The Company has completed data reviews for each of the Nottrask, Flinten and
Annehill projects and SRK consultants of Toronto, working together with a
geologist from the Company, has commenced follow up mapping and sampling on
these projects which are all considered prospective for nickel-copper-PGM-
bearing massive and disseminated sulphide mineralisation.

TANTLALUM PROJECTS

ROSENDAL (Finland) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

Phase 1 metallurgical testwork on samples from the Rosendal tantalum deposit
in south-west Finland has shown the pegmatite ore is mineralogically simple
and that tantalum can be recovered in a relatively simple processing plant. In
addition, most of the other constituents of the Rosendal ore are commercially
valuable industrial minerals that can be recovered as marketable by-products.

Lakefield Research, an independent Canadian laboratory, undertook the
testwork, on samples collected on Tertiary's behalf by the Geological Survey
of Finland. It included detailed mineralogical investigations, six gravity
concentration tests and two flotation tests.

In their final report Lakefield concluded that:


  * Respectable recovery of tantalum from the Rosendal pegmatite ore can be
    achieved using gravity concentration, which yields a high-grade
    concentrate averaging over 30%. tantalum pentoxide.

  * Sodium feldspar can be recovered from the gravity tailings and a
    premium-grade feldspar concentrate was produced in the preliminary tests.

  * Additional marketable products of mica and quartz were produced as
    by-products of the above tests.

  * The Rosendal ore contains a minimal amount of waste material; the
    various marketable minerals (tantalum, feldspar, quartz and mica)
    recovered during the testwork represent approximately 95% of the raw ore.

The Lakefield testwork also showed that the tantalite in the Rosendal ore is
present as the high-grade ferrotantalite and ferrotapiolite minerals and that
commercial recoveries of tantalum can be achieved at relatively coarse grind
sizes and without sizing the ground ore.

The Rosendal pegmatite is estimated by the Geological Survey of Finland to
contain 1.3 million tonnes of material to a vertical depth of 100 metres with
an average grade of 289 grammes/tonne tantalum pentoxide estimated from
previous surface sampling and limited drilling. The deposit is located on the
coast adjacent to an existing industrial minerals processing plant and
ship-loading facilities.

Planning is underway for the next stage of evaluation of the Rosendal deposit
which will include infill drilling and economic scoping studies.

BASE-METAL PROJECTS

DJURAGRUVAN PROJECT (Sweden) - Tertiary Minerals 75% - 100%

This is a priority target following the Company's discovery of a 3km long
high-grade ore-boulder train (18 boulders averaging 10.6% zinc, 3.9% lead,
0.3% copper) to the south-south-east of the historic Gruvberget mining centre.

During the quarter an orientation geophysical exploration programme was
carried out in the main mining centre to test the response of known
mineralisation to various geophysical exploration techniques. The IP and
ground magnetic geophysical techniques gave strong anomalies over known
mineralisation and were selected to explore for the source of the high-grade
ore-boulders.

Results became available from a till geochemical survey carried out during the
last quarter. These results show strong geochemical anomalies associated with
known mineralisations as well as parallel anomalies and a large geochemical
anomaly coincident with the 3km strike length of the ore-boulder train.

A 30 line km magnetic survey has recently been completed to identify targets
for IP profiling and follow up drilling. Results are awaited.

WINDFALL PROJECT (Sweden) - Tertiary Minerals 75% - 100%

Integration of the Boliden and Tertiary Minerals drill databases has been
completed and a thorough re-evaluation of the data has been carried out.

Whilst this review has confirmed that significant zones of zinc mineralisation
occur at both Vindfall and Sortarnan, the geology and geometry of
mineralisation is complex. A reliable interpretation of the geology and an
estimation of resources have been hampered by differences in logging and
sampling protocols between the Boliden and Tertiary data sets.

All of the core from the Boliden drill holes is available in Sweden and the
Company has planned a two phase re-logging and sampling programme, which will
be carried out over the winter to determine if a geological interpretation can
be made which would permit a reliable resource estimate.

A review of the surrounding geology has highlighted a corridor of prospective
geology, which will be targeted with renewed exploration in the Spring of
2002.

GOLD PROJECTS

No work was carried out on the company's gold exploration projects during the
quarter as the Company has concentrated activity on its PGM, tantalum and base
metal interests.

Patrick L Cheetham          31 October 2001

Executive Chairman

For further information contact :

Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals

Tel: + 44 (0)1625 626203 or visit the Company's website :
www.tertiaryminerals.com