February 1, 2000: Sudbury, Ontario - Houston Lake Mining Inc. ("Houston Lake") is pleased to announce that the company is raising funds on a best efforts basis through a non-brokered private placement to take place in Ontario and Alberta only. The company is offering a minimum of 320,000 flow-through common shares up to a maximum of 400,000 flow-through common shares at a price of $0.25 per share for maximum gross proceeds of $100,000. The private placement has a hold period of one and a half years in Ontario and one year in Alberta.

Proceeds will be used for working capital purposes to advance exploration on the Tib Lake Palladium Property which is located in the Thunder Bay Mining District of northwestern Ontario. Houston Lake has the option to earn a 100 percent interest in the Tib Lake property subject to a 2.5 percent NSR. Houston Lake has expended approximately $220,000 to date and completed all required cash payments on the property. Houston Lake is required to spend an additional $80,000 and issue 50,000 common shares by March 16, 2000 to earn the Company’s interest.

The 1632 hectare (4030 acre) Tib Lake Palladium Property is located 6 miles northwest of the Lac Des Iles Mine of North American Palladium Ltd., where a recently announced positive feasibility study recommended a US$126 million expansion of the mine. The Tib Lake Palladium Property covers over 60 percent of the prospective Border and Lower Zones and hosts all known palladium occurrences on the Tib Lake Gabbro. Palladium is currently selling above US$480 per ounce, and is used primarily in catalytic converters for the automotive industry.

The current exploration program will largely be comprised of IP (Induced Polarization) geophysical surveys which is expected to generate drill targets for future exploration on the property. The exploration program will focus on a sulfide-bearing heterogeneous gabbro/gabbro breccia which is the host rock type to two of the three palladium occurrences thus far discovered on the property:

The Kuhner Occurrence is the site where a 1995 drill hole encountered an estimated true width of 13.6 metres of 1.68 g/t PGE’s (palladium, platinum, and gold) including 5.28 metres of 2.76 g/t PGE’s at a depth of 30.5 metres. This result was confirmed as 1.60 g/t PGE’s over 13.6 metres in 1999 by Houston Lake.

The Jewelweed Occurrence is located approximately 2.5 km. northwest of the Kuhner Occurrence and returned 1.2 g/t PGE’s in a government sample.

The Road Occurrence is a poorly exposed outcrop containing anomalous PGE values in a net-textured sulfide-bearing gabbronorite breccia and is located 800 m. east of the Jewelweed Occurrence.

The private placement is subject to approval of the Canadian Venture Exchange. Houston Lake is actively exploring for rare metals, platinum group metals and gold in northwestern Ontario. The common shares of Houston Lake Mining Inc. trade through the facilities of the Canadian Venture Exchange under the symbol HLM. Houston Lake Mining Inc. has a total of 11,363,266 common shares issued and outstanding. For further information on all of the Company’s projects, we invite you to visit us at www.houstonlakemining.com.

For more information, please contact:

E. Grayme Anthony

Tel: (705) 897-7622

Fax: (705) 897-7618

e-mail: houston@vianet.on.ca

Web Site: www.houstonlakemining.com

The Canadian Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained herein.