Financing to Commence for Tib Lake Palladium Property Drilling and Pakeagama Lake Rare Metals Property Exploration, Investor Relations Appointment

May 3, 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 will offer a maximum of 250,000 units at a price of $1.20 per unit for maximum gross proceeds of $300,000. Each unit will consist of one flow through common share and one common share with a one purchase warrant attached to the non-flow through common share. Each full warrant is exercisable at a price of $0.70 for a period of one year and at a price of $0.80 for a subsequent 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. Proceeds will be used for working capital purposes to advance exploration to include drilling on the Tib Lake Palladium Property and to initiate exploration on the Pakeagama Rare Metals Property.

Approximately $150,000 of the proposed financing is slated for the Tib Lake Palladium Property which is located in the Thunder Bay Mining District of northwestern Ontario just 6 miles northwest of the Lac Des Iles Mine of North American Palladium Ltd. ("NAPL"), where a proposed US$126 million expansion of the mine is currently planned. As announced in the Press Release dated March 15, 2000, Houston Lake has completed its 100 percent earn in of the 1632 hectare (4030 acre) Tib Lake property subject to a 2.5 percent Net Smelter Royalty.

The Company has received a Geological Compilation Report from independent consulting geologist Ike Osmani, F.G.A.C., B.Sc., M.A.Sc. which recommends $500,000 exploration program. Mr. Osmani states in his report: "The association of pegmatitic phases and magma mixing with PGE mineralization at these occurrences is similar to that of the Roby zone at the nearby Lac Des Iles Mine. Hence the potential of a similar deposit occurring also exists on the Tib Lake property."

Five major IP anomalies have been depicted by the recent surveys. Anomaly 1 is a 2.5 km. curvilinear zone that is open in both directions and will be the primary focus of the proposed exploration program. This zone encompasses most of the known palladium occurrences on the property. The Kuhner Occurrence is found at the eastern extremity of this zone and 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.).

Approximately $60,000 of the proposed financing is slated for preliminary work on the Pakeagama Lake Rare Metals Property which is located approximately 165 kilometres north of Red Lake, Ontario. Houston Lake is required to issue 75,000 common shares, make cash payments totaling $70,000, and expend $46,000 over 2 years to earn a 100 percent interest in the 256 hectare (632 acre) Pakeagama Lake Property subject to a 2.5 percent Net Smelter Royalty.

The Pakeagama Lake pegmatite has been a focus of study for the past two years by Dr. Fred Breaks of the Ontario Geological Survey ("OGS", a government agency) and Dr. Andy Tindle and PhD candidate Steve Smith of The Open University in the United Kingdom. Approximately 2186 analyses have been conducted to establish that the Pakeagama Rare Metals Pegmatite is potentially a world-class pegmatite suggesting the presence of a Tanco type mineralizing system. The Pakeagama Lake pegmatite has a width which varies from 30 to 70 metres and a strike length of at least 260 metres (open in both directions) which may extend another 300 metres to a 700 g/t tantalum oxide occurrence. In Summary of Field Work 1999, OGS Open File Report 6000 dated November, 1999, Dr. Breaks et al conclude: "The detailed documentation of a variety of tantalum-rich minerals coupled with the presence of pollucite (main cesium ore mineral) renders the Pakeagama Lake pegmatite and adjoining area one of the best exploration targets for tantalum and cesium in northwestern Ontario."

Twenty-four samples from Pakeagama Lake were sent for analysis at ALS Chemex Labs Ltd. by Houston Lake and reported on January 18, 2000. Eleven 1-metre channel samples focused on the Wall Zone and returned an average of 285 g/t tantalum oxide, 0.54 percent rubidium oxide, 913 g/t cesium oxide, 600 g/t beryllium oxide, 108 g/t tin, 166.5 g/t niobium oxide, 1.14 percent lithium oxide, 6.0 g/t thallium, 3.3 g/t germanium, and 4.7 g/t antimony.

Effective immediately Houston Lake has engaged Royal Gold Evergreen (² Royal Gold² ) to provide Investor Relations services for the Company. Royal Gold brings over 40 years of international marketing experience to Houston Lake. Royal Gold had previously been retained by the Company for non-promotional activities and granted 75,000 common share options at $0.25. Subject to regulatory and CDNX approval, Houston Lake will be seeking to add an 50,000 additional common shares to the previously granted options for the expanded role which now includes investor relations services.

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 12,228,266 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 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.