October 24, 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"). The drill program has been concluded after the completion of six drill holes totaling 1,037.6 metres (3,403.3 feet). Results from 241 drill core samples and 23 surface samples are expected in the next few weeks from ALS 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.

Tib Lake Palladium Property spans over 4 km (2.5 miles) of the highly prospective Border and Lower Zones of the Tib Lake gabbro, the second largest intrusion after of the Lac Des Iles Intrusion of NAPL in the Lac Des Iles area of northwestern Ontario. Large intrusion size combined with a high background of palladium-platinum-gold (PGE) values are important for the formation of economic PGE deposits found elsewhere in the world. An independent provincial government agency, The Ontario Geological Survey ("OGS"), makes the following observation about the Kuhner Occurrence on the Tib Lake Palladium Property: "This association of magma mixing and PGE mineralization is similar to that which occurs in the Roby Zone at the nearby Lac Des Iles Complex."

Recent geological mapping by independent consulting geologist, Walter Peredery, Ph.D., has identified an extensive area of chemically altered and sulphide-bearing variably-textured gabbro which strikes for more than 2.5 km (1.5 miles) and widens to about a kilometre between the Jewelweed and Kuhner Palladium Occurrences. Dr. Peredery recommends further work in this new area: "In exploring for the Cu-Ni-PGE sulphides in the (Tib Lake) intrusion we would favour the lower contact and the ultramafic rocks in that (primary) environment. In exploring for remobilized sulphides, the obvious targets are: a) extensive developments of variably-textured gabbroic rocks with pegmatoid textures and b) extensive alteration zones which may be the margins of big systems with variably-textured gabbros hidden at depth."

The sixth drill hole of the program, TL-00-20, targeted the vicinity of the Jewelweed Palladium Occurrence where a government grab sample returned 1.25 g/t PGE’s. TL-00-20 encountered a well sulphidized variably-textured gabbro. Sulphides average 3 to 5 percent and are composed of pyrite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite. The drilling program is now completed and 241 drill core samples and 23 surface samples have been shipped for analysis to ALS Chemex Labs of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Additional assays from drilling, detailed mapping and prospecting as well as a compilation report are expected over the next several weeks. The project is under the supervision of independent consulting geologist, Ken Germundsen, Ph.D.

Management is encouraged by the success of the current exploration program in the results reported from the first three holes of the drilling program (highlight of a 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 in TL-00-16), in the identification of a new and extensive area with the potential to host significant PGE mineralization, and in the knowledge gained on the geology and style of PGE mineralization on the Tib Lake property. Houston Lake is confident that the solid foundation of this work will maximize the potential for success of future exploration on the project.

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 12,806,182 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