HOUSTON LAKE MINING INC.

(HLM-CDNX)

PRESS RELEASE

Corporate Update

New Option Doubles Ground at Pakeagama Lake Tantalum Project

Pakeagama Lake Option Extended, First Closing of Financing Imminent

March 23, 2001:  Sudbury, Ontario - Houston Lake Mining Inc. (CDNX:HLM, "Houston Lake") is pleased to announce that the Company has doubled its land position in the
Pakeagama Lake area to 512 hectares (1267 acres) with the option of a 100 percent interest in the Pakeagama Lake West Property. Work commitments under the Pakeagama Lake option agreement dated March 22, 1999 have been extended to June 30, 2001. The first
closing of the private placement financing dated November 21, 2000 is anticipated by the end of next week.

The Company has reached agreement with a private individual on the 256 hectare (633.6 acre) Pakeagama Lake West ("PLW") property located in the Red Lake Mining District of Ontario, Canada. Houston Lake will issue 100,000 shares, cover staking costs, and expend $25,000 in assessment work over one year to earn a 100 percent interest in the PLW property subject to a 2.5 percent Net Smelter Royalty ("NSR") and regulatory approval. The PLW property adjoins the southern border of the Pakeagama Lake property. Houston Lake now has a total of 512 hectares (1267 acres) under option in the Pakeagama Lake area. This land position covers all known exposures of the Pakeagama Lake tantalum-bearing pegmatite.

The Pakeagama Lake pegmatite is a recent discovery of the Ontario Geological Survey ("OGS"), a provincial government agency. Preliminary work carried out by the OGS and confirmed by Houston Lake has determined that the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite is alreadythe second largest complex-type, petalite sub-type in Ontario with a strike length of over 260 metres and a width of 30 to 70 metres. Channel sampling perpendicular to the strike of the Northern Wall Zone of the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite has returned 344 g/t tantalum oxide, 0.90 percent rubidium oxide, 1776 g/t cesium oxide, 68.9 g/t tin, 131.9 g/t niobium oxide, 1.34 percent lithium oxide, 25.9 g/t thallium, and 42.2 g/t gallium over 11 metres. Houston Lake management believes that the high concentration of rare metals verified in preliminary results on a large pegmatite mineralizing system makes Pakeagama Lake one of the foremost tantalum exploration projects in the world.

Work commitments under the Pakeagama Lake option agreement dated March 22, 1999 have been extended to June 30, 2001 due to significant snow accumulation over the past winter. Programs of property-scale line-cutting, geophysics and geological mapping will seek to extend the known dimensions of the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite and rare metals mineralization. These programs are expected to begin soon after Spring break up to coincide with the previous grid set up to control detailed mapping of the pegmatite. Houston Lake has issued a total of 200,000 shares, and paid $90,000 in cash payments on the property. Remaining work commitments of approximately $20,000 is expected to be met by the upcoming exploration programs. A final cash payment of $60,000 required to complete the option agreement will be paid out of moneys arising from the first closing and exercise of warrants relating to the private placement financing dated July 20, 2000.

The first closing of the private placement financing dated November 21, 2000 is anticipated by the end of next week. Houston Lake is offering a maximum of 200,000 units at a price of $1.50 per unit for maximum gross proceeds of $300,000. Each unit consists of two flow through common shares and one common share with a half purchase warrant attached to the non-flow through common share. Each full warrant is exercisable at a price of $0.60 for a period of one year. The private placement has a hold period of one year in Alberta and one and a half years in Ontario and is subject to regulatory approval. The financing includes recently announced Canadian and Ontario government flow-through tax incentives yielding an additional 20 percent of tax credits for investors. The private placement offering has a current expiration date of May 21, 2001. Successful completion of the $300,000 private placement financing is anticipated to advance exploration through initial drilling on the Pakeagama Lake property.

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 13,108,557 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.

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