Quarterly Report

Tertiary Minerals PLC
01 May 2002


                             TERTIARY MINERALS PLC

                   QUARTERLY REPORT ON EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES

                       FOR THE PERIOD ENDED 31 MARCH 2002

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                                   HIGHLIGHTS



GHURAYYAH TANTALUM PROJECT

        •      5 year licence exploration granted over 385 million tonne
               open-pittable resource grading 245 g/t tantalum pentoxide (Ta205)
               , 2,840 g/t niobium pentoxide (Nb205) and 8,915 g/t zirconium 
               oxide (Zr02).

        •      Metallurgical sampling complete

        •      Lakefield Research to carry out metallurgical testwork and
               process development


ROSENDAL TANTALUM PROJECT


        •      First stage pre-feasibility drilling completed, assay results
               awaited.

        •      Parallel tantalum bearing dykes offer additional resource
               potential.


FINNMARK PGM PROJECT


        •      Geophysical anomalies found associated with and along strike from
               the outcropping PGM mineralisation discovered last summer.

        •      1km strike length of priority anomaly to be drill tested.



LOGARDEN BASE METAL PROJECT


        •      Geophysical survey shows 200m long open-ended Induced
               Polarization anomaly associated with known high-grade zinc-silver
               -gold mineralisation.

        •      Parallel 200m long, open-ended IP anomaly under cover to south.



PLACEMENT


        •      £356,157 raised for working capital through issue of 1,424,750
               new shares at 25p.

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INTRODUCTION

This report gives details of exploration work carried out during the quarter
ended 31 March 2002 and up to the date of this report, and the results for the
period.


PLACEMENT

During the quarter the Company placed a total of 1,424,750 new ordinary shares
to institutional and private clients of W H Ireland to raise £356,157 before
expenses.


TANTALUM PROJECTS

Tantalum demand in the past 18 months has been depressed as customers drew down
substantial inventories that had been built up over a period of exceptional
demand growth up to the last quarter of the year 2000. There is some evidence
that these inventories are now being depleted and Sons of Gwalia, the world's
leading tantalum producer, has announced in its March 2002 quarterly report that
demand for tantalum is now steadily increasing.

Tertiary Minerals has previously set out a two-fold strategy for involvement in
the tantalum business. It is looking to fast track the development of its
Rosendal project in Finland, a modest sized deposit capable of near term
production without significantly affecting world markets. At the same time, in
response to the exceptional growth in the tantalum market over the past 10
years, the Company has been seeking a world-class deposit capable of supplying
large amounts of tantalum to the market over a long period of time commencing in
3-5 years when substantial supply deficits have been forecast.

The second leg of this strategy has taken a major step forward this last quarter
with the acquisition of the Ghurayyah tantalum deposit in Saudi Arabia, reported
to be the World's largest single accumulation of tantalum.

GHURAYYAH (Saudi Arabia) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

On 26 January 2002 Tertiary Minerals was awarded a five-year exclusive
exploration licence over the world-class Ghurayyah tantalum/rare-metal deposit.
The 47 km. sq. licence is renewable for up to nine years and gives Tertiary the
right to acquire a 50-year mining lease on defined terms.

SRK Consulting, on behalf of Tertiary, has estimated the deposit to contain a
bulk tonnage, open pittable, Inferred Minerals Resource, to a depth of
approximately 250m, of:

385 million tonnes grading:          245 grammes per tonne ('g/t') tantalum 
                                     pentoxide (Ta205)
                                     2,840 g/t niobium pentoxide (Nb205)
                                     8,915 g/t zirconium oxide (Zr02)

The Company has moved quickly to commence the further evaluation of the
Ghurayyah deposit and, to date, has:


        1.     invited and received bids for a comprehensive programme of
        mineralogical characterisation and metallurgical testwork.

        2.     commissioned and received a report from St. Barbara Consulting
        reviewing the existing metallurgical testwork data and the proposals for
        further testwork.

        3.     selected Lakefield Research in Canada as the contractor for
        metallurgical testwork and process development.

        4.     located and re-logged all drill core and Reverse Circulation
        ('RC') samples from 1999 United States Geological Survey drill
        programme.

        5.     completed re-logging and sampling of RC drill chips and diamond
        core for re-assay and metallurgical testwork.

Metallurgical testwork on behalf of the Saudi Government in 1978 defined at
least one possible process flowsheet, which achieved overall recoveries of 77%
of tantalum and 80% of niobium into separate, purified, marketable products. The
test laboratory also indicated that higher recoveries should be possible with
process refinement and flowsheet optimisation.

Since this work was undertaken, significant advances have been made in the
recovery of fine-grained tantalum and niobium minerals. Lakefield Research will
now carry out gravity and magnetic pre-concentration and flotation testwork with
the object of producing a concentrate of tantalum and niobium for sale or for
further processing to separate tantalum and niobium products.

The testwork programme will start shortly and is expected to take approximately
eighteen weeks to complete.

ROSENDAL (Finland) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

Following the decision last quarter to proceed with a preliminary feasibility
study for development of the Rosendal deposit the Company has now completed 130m
of trenching and associated sampling and 1,221m of diamond-core drilling in 14
holes.

All 14 holes intersected the main Rosendal tantalum-bearing Rosendal dyke. The
results from this programme will be announced when all of the assay data is
available, in approximately three weeks time.

Field reconnaissance to the north of the main Rosendale dyke has discovered
additional pegmatite dykes containing coarse-grained tantalum mineralisation in
outcrop. The additional resource potential of these dykes will be assessed in a
programme of prospecting of trenching.

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

FINNMARK PROJECT (Norway) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

During the quarter an extensive programme of geophysical exploration has been
carried out at the Porsvann and Gallujavri prospects to define drill targets for
further testing of PGM mineralisation discovered during the 2001 summer
reconnaissance programme.

This geophysical programme was carried out by Geovista AB of Sweden under the
direction of SRK Consulting in Canada.

The programme comprised:

•      20 line km of magnetic surveying

•      16 line km of Gradient Induced Polarisation ('IP)

•      2.5 line km of Dipole-Dipole IP

•      3 line km of Maxmin electromagnetic surveying

Porsvann Prospect

At Porsvann, magnetic surveying has shown that the PGM mineralised ultramafic is
unlikely to extend beneath cover to the south of the main prospect which has, as
a result, been downgraded.

Gallujavre Prospect

At Gallujarvre, magnetic surveying has confirmed the general size and shape of
this much larger ultramafic intrusive where reconnaissance sampling at the end
of summer 2001 returned PGM assays of 2.15g/t Pt+Pd from outcropping
disseminated nickel-copper mineralisation.

In order to better evaluate the potential of this nickel-copper-PGM sulphide
mineralisation a number of test surveys were carried out during the quarter
using three different electrical methods - Maximum II horizontal loop EM,
Dipole-Dipole and Gradient IP.

Whilst the Maxmin survey did not locate any conductors indicative of massive
nickel-copper sulphides, Gradient IP identified a broad zone of high
chargeability associated with the eastern margin of the ultramafic where PGM
bearing disseminated nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation in serpentinised
ultramafic has been found in outcrops and old drill holes.

The Gradient IP survey was subsequently extended over 25 lines along a 2.5km
strike length to cover the eastern margin of the intrusion.

The extended IP survey shows that the broad chargeability anomaly is continuous
throughout the survey area where it is believed to reflect hydrothermal
alteration and serpentinisation of the ultramafic intrusion. Within this broad
anomaly there are zones of coincident higher chargeability and lower resistivity
which are spatially associated with the known PGM bearing sulphide
mineralisation within the broader alteration envelope.

A 1km long zone of low resistivity has been selected for drill testing.

BASE-METAL PROJECTS

DJURAGRUVAN PROJECT (Sweden) - Tertiary Minerals - 100%

During the quarter the results of an 8 line-km IP survey were received which was
designed to test for extensions of mineralisation to the north and south of the
Gruvberget South open-pit-silver-copper-silver mineralisation and to test for
in-situ mineralisation in the region of a previously reported high-grade zinc
boulder train.

The results of this survey indicate a modest extension of mineralisation to the
north and south of the Gruvberget South pit, where mineralisation is also open
at depth, but failed to locate any targets in the region of the boulder train.

A programme of drilling is schedule for later this year to test for
mineralisation around and beneath the Gruvberget South pit.

LOGARDEN PROJECT (Sweden) - Tertiary Minerals 100%

This comprises a surface outcrop of zinc-rich massive sulphide mineralisation
where a chip sample returned an average grade of over 23% combined
zinc-lead-copper and over 100 g/t of silver over 2.5m.

During the quarter three 100m spaced reconnaissance gradient IP traverses were
completed to test a 200m strike length centred on the showing. This survey
indicates that mineralisation may be continuous throughout the tested area and
it also defined a second parallel anomaly, also continuous through the survey
area but located 70m to the south, under cover.

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

The Company's re-logging and interpretation programme has been deferred in
favour of higher priority targets but will resume later this year.

Patrick L Cheetham

Executive Chairman

For further information contact:

Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman, Tertiary Minerals plc

Tel: [phone] or visit the company's website:
www.tertiaryminerals.com



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