March 15, 2000: Sudbury, Ontario - Houston Lake Mining Inc. ("Houston Lake") is pleased to announce that the Company has completed all the requirements of the Company’s 100 percent option on the Tib Lake Palladium Property by making cash payments totaling $22,500 and issuing 75,000 common shares to Obongo Precious Metals Inc. of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Houston Lake has expended over $300,000 on project exploration to meet exploration requirements of the earn in. This figure excludes a fifteen percent management fee allowed under the Tib Lake Property Agreement which would bring the total qualified expenditures to approximately $347,000. The 100 percent interest is subject to a 2.5 percent Net Smelter Royalty.

Houston Lake has recently completed a program of line-cutting and magnetic and IP (Induced Polarization) geophysical surveys on the Tib Lake Palladium Property which is located in the Thunder Bay Mining District of northwestern Ontario. The program originally involved 30 line km. (18 miles) of IP and has been expanded by 10 to 15 line-km to cover a two km (1.2 mile) long zone of a sulfide-bearing heterogeneous gabbro/gabbro breccia which extends eastward from the Kuhner Occurrence. The Kuhner Occurrence is the site where a 1995 drill hole, TL-95-09, intersected a core length of 18.47 metres of 1.68 g/t PGE’s (palladium, platinum, and gold) including 7.47 metres of 2.76 g/t PGE’s and including 4.53 g/t PGE’s over 2.12 metres at a depth of 30.5 metres (60.6 ft. of 0.05 oz/T PGE’s including 24.5 ft. of 0.08 oz/T PGE’s and including 0.14 oz/T over 7.0 ft.). This result was confirmed as 1.60 g/t PGE’s over 18.47 metres (0.05 oz/T PGE’s over 60.6 ft.) in 1999 by Houston Lake.

Results of the IP and magnetic surveys are currently being compiled into a comprehensive geological report which will include previous work consisting of line-cutting, magnetic and VLF-EM surveys, geological mapping, trenching and stripping, and diamond drilling. Houston Lake’s two year program is the first documented systematic exploration conducted over the Tib Lake gabbro. The compilation report is being completed by independent consultant Ike Osmani, F.G.A.C., B.Sc., M.A.Sc. and is expected to recommend future exploration including diamond drilling of the Tib Lake Property. Results of the current program and recommendations for future exploration work will be released in several weeks as soon as the compilation report is completed.

The Tib Lake Palladium Property is located just 6 miles northwest of the Lac Des Iles Mine of North American Palladium Ltd. ("NAPL"), where a recently announced positive feasibility study recommended a US$126 million expansion of the mine. Reserves at the Roby Zone open pit of the Lac Des Iles Mine have been increased to 74.2 million tonnes grading 1.64 grams palladium, 0.18 grams platinum and 0.14 grams gold per tonne plus 0.07% copper and 0.06% nickel, based on a cutoff grade of 0.92 grams palladium-equivalent.

The Tib Lake gabbro is the second largest mafic intrusion (over 25 sq. km. or 10 sq. miles) of the Lac Des Iles intrusive suite with the Lac Des Iles Intrusive Complex being the largest (35 sq. km. or 14 sq. miles). Globally, large intrusion size accompanied by high platinum group (PGE) background values are found to be important determinants for the potential to host for large tonnage deposits of PGE’s. Previous mapping by the Ontario Geological Survey and recent work by Houston Lake found extensive zones of up to 6 km (3.6 miles) long of pegmatitic gabbro/gabbro breccia associated with minor pyroxenite rock units which are highly reminiscent of geological environment and geological setting noted in the vicinity of the Lac Des Iles palladium mine. Mineralization is also similar and consists of disseminated to net-textured pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and minor pentlandite which may reach 5 percent of the host pegmatitic gabbro/gabbro breccia. An OGS report (Precambrian Geology of the Tib Gabbro, Lac des Iles Area, Ontario Geological Survey Map p.3092 by A. R. Smith and R. H. Sutcliffe, 1987) notes:

"The association of magma mixing and PGE mineralization is similar to that which occurs in the Roby Zone of the nearby Lac Des Iles Complex. Magma mixing is another important mechanism for the precipitation of sulphide mineralization and subsequent concentration of PGE’s."

The 1632 hectare (4030 acre) 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 has traded above US$600 per ounce and is used primarily in catalytic converters for the automotive industry.

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 11,995,516 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 B.Sc., P. Geo., F.G.A.C., M.B.A.

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.