October 13, 2000:  Sudbury, Ontario - Houston Lake Mining Inc. ("Houston Lake") is pleased to update the drilling program on the Company’s 1632 hectare (4030 acre) Tib Lake Palladium Property which is located in the Lac Des Iles area of northwestern Ontario. The property is located just 9 miles northwest of the Lac Des Iles Mine of North American Palladium Ltd. ("NAPL"). Four drill holes of the seven drill hole diamond drilling program have been now completed and the fifth hole is nearing completion. A total of 92 samples (16 surface samples and 76 drill core samples) have now been sent to Chemex Labs of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Houston Lake has earned a 100 percent interest in the property subject to a 2.5 percent Net Smelter Royalty with a buyback of 1 percent for $1,000,000.

The fourth drill hole of the program, TL-00-18, encountered a rose-coloured (hematized), sulphide-bearing norite near the contact with the granitic country rock. Sulphides average 2 to 3 percent and are composed of pyrite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite. The fifth drill hole, TL-00-19, targets the Road Palladium Occurrence which is hosted in a net-textured sulphide-bearing pyroxenite breccia. Prospecting has traced the pyroxenite rock unit from the vicinity of the 22 metre (72.2 feet) intercept grading 1.456 g/t PGE’s (0.042 oz/t PGE’s), 0.17% nickel and 0.15% copper over a kilometre to the east of the Kuhner Occurrence (see table below for palladium-platinum-gold values).

The project is under the supervision of independent consulting geologist, Ken Germundsen, Ph.D while the detailed mapping program is executed by Walter Peradery, Ph..D. Additional assays from drilling, detailed mapping and prospecting are expected over the next several weeks.

Houston Lake is actively exploring for rare metals, platinum group metals and gold in northwestern Ontario, Canada. Houston Lake Mining Inc. has a total of 12,797,432 common shares issued and outstanding. The common shares of Houston Lake Mining Inc. trade through the facilities of the Canadian Venture Exchange under the symbol HLM. 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.