HOUSTON LAKE MINING INC.

(HLM-TSX.V)

PRESS RELEASE

Houston Lake Mining Begins Phase 2 Drilling of Angel Hill Gold Zone,
Surface Sampling Program Concluded

October 26, 2004: Sudbury, Ontario - Houston Lake Mining Inc. (TSX.V:HLM, "Houston Lake") is pleased to announce that the Phase 2 definition drill program has commenced on the West Cedartree Gold Project. The Project is located near Sioux Narrows, Ontario. A minimum of 700m. (2296 ft.) in a six drill holes is planned with the aim of further extending the Angel Hill Gold Zone to depth. Surface samples have been sent for fire assay and results are expected in November.

The Fall 2004 exploration program is comprised of two components: surface exploration and diamond drilling. The surface exploration has just been completed with the channel sampling of new quartz veins uncovered by Spring rains on the stripped portion of the AHGZ and further clearing and evaluation of old trenches from the historic McLennan Gold Zone. A dozen selective channel and systematic chip samples have been shipped to ALS Chemex Laboratories in Thunder Bay for fire assay analysis with a 50 gram charge.

The just commenced diamond drilling program builds upon the systematic drilling completed last winter. The Phase 2 program seeks to further extend the Angel Hill Gold Zone to depth under the stripped area. A minimum of six drill holes are planned to intersect the AHGZ at an approximate depth of 60m (200ft). The drill program is expected to be completed by the end of November. Independent Consulting Geologist Dean R. Cutting, P. Geo. is the Qualified Person for the project and has reviewed this press release in its entirety.

E. Grayme Anthony, President, comments: "The West Cedartree Gold Project covers two important gold zones: the recently discovered Angel Hill Gold Zone and the historic McLennan Gold Zone. The McLennan Gold Zone has returned interesting gold values in preliminary sampling and will become an important future gold target on the Project.

However, our primary exploration effort will continue to concentrate on the Angel Hill Gold Zone. We estimate that less than 1% of this new gold system has been explored to date. The knowledge gained from the detailed exploration carried out thus far will be invaluable in appraising this 2100m (6888ft.) long target.

The Angel Hill Gold Zone mineralization was successfully extended to a depth of 40m (130ft) in last winter's focused delineation drill program. Not only has the zone widened with depth but 3 of the 6 deepest drill holes encountered gold grades in excess of 1 oz/t. We look forward to seeing if this promising trend continues in the Phase 2 systematic diamond drill program."

Houston Lake has a 100% interest in three contiguous properties covering a total of 635.6 hectares (1569.8 acres) in the West Cedartree Lake area. The properties are accessed by an all-weather gravel road, which traverses the northern portions of the project area. Recent work by Houston Lake has largely focused on the Angel Hill Gold Zone ("AHGZ"), one of two gold zones discovered thus far on the project.

The AHGZ occurs within a large gabbro sill at the contact of ultramafic rocks forming the footwall to the gabbroic rocks of the hanging wall. Higher gold values (up to 81.33 g/t or 2.37 oz/t Au) are associated with discontinuous quartz lenses and pods which tend to be more prolific in wider portions of the zone. The AHGZ can be traced by geophysics for a distance of 2.1km (1.5miles) on the property to encompasses gold-in-soil anomalies and a gold occurrence along its strike extension. The zone remains open to depth and along strike to the south.

Last year, Houston Lake conducted stripping and washing, systematic channel sampling, and detailed mapping over a 130m (426 foot) segment of the AHGZ. The AHGZ was directly tested by 77 of the systematic channel samples which ranged from trace to 71.30 g/t Au (2.080 oz/t) and had a weighted average of 4.04 g/t Au (0.118 oz/t). A 20 hole 1139m (3736ft.) diamond drilling program was completed in February, 2004. Twelve of the 18 holes drilled under the 130m (426ft.) stripped area returned significant gold values and 5 of these holes intersected grades higher than 1 oz/t Au.

Houston Lake is actively exploring for Gold, Platinum Group Metals and Rare Metals with a strategic focus on northwestern Ontario. The Company has a total of 18,233,198 common shares issued and outstanding exclusive of the proposed financing. The common shares of Houston Lake Mining Inc. trade through the facilities of the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol HLM. For further information, we invite you to visit us at www.houstonlakemining.com.

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