Corriente Awards Engineering and Procurement Work to SNC-Lavalin for Mirador Copper Mine.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Corriente Resources Inc. (TSX:CTQ) is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, EcuaCorriente S.A. has signed a Letter of Award with SNC-Lavalin Chile S.A., a member of the SNC-Lavalin Group of Companies of Canada, for full Engineering and Procurement Services for the start-up and expansion of the Mirador copper-gold mine in southeast Ecuador.

Corriente's President Tom Milner commented, "A challenge facing the mining industry globally is the shortage of engineering services available to do detailed engineering and construction of new operations to meet the growing demand for metals. We are pleased to secure the services of SNC-Lavalin Chile's experienced engineering group, who have extensive mine design and construction experience in South America. This is an important step towards our start-up of operations at Mirador. Corriente's copper resources and team of experienced senior mine operating personnel, forms the foundation for Corriente to build a strong mid-tier copper producer with a significant growth potential."

On November 17, 2005, Corriente announced the results of optimization study work done by Mine Development Associates of Reno, NV (MDA), which established a mine life of 38 years for the 25,000 tonnes per day starter project.

Using the optimization study results, Management established the viability of expanding the starter project to 50,000 tpd with construction of the expansion underway in year 5 of operations, and reported in the company's November 17, 2005 news release that the overall Mirador mine plan was projected to generate a 24% pre-tax IRR and a NPV of $US 349 Million at an 8% discount rate using a long-term copper price of $US 1.10/lb.

Engineering and pre-construction work remains on schedule at Mirador, with approval of the company's Environmental Impact Assessment expected in the second quarter of 2006.

Mirador is one of the few new, sizeable copper projects available for near-term production. Beyond the Mirador project, Corriente has a unique pipeline of copper resource development projects which will support increased copper production in the Corriente Copper Belt District. Corriente controls a 100% interest in over 50,000 hectares located within the Corriente Copper Belt. The Belt currently contains three copper and copper-gold porphyry deposits, Mirador, Panantza and San Carlos. Corriente has recently discovered a fourth deposit in the district, Mirador Norte (3 kms from Mirador), where resource delineation drilling is currently ongoing. Additional exploration activities will be ongoing, as six additional copper and copper-gold exploration targets have been identified in the Corriente Copper Belt to date.

SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) is one of the leading groups of engineering and construction companies in the world, a global leader in the ownership of infrastructure, and in operations and maintenance services. The SNC-Lavalin companies have offices across Canada and in 30 other countries around the world and are currently working in some 100 countries. www.snclavalin.com.

Thomas E. Milner, P. Eng., President

Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company's plans to materially differ from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made, and readers are advised to consider such forward-looking statements in light of the risks set forth in the company's continuous disclosure filings as found at www.sedar.com.

Disclosure statements as required by National Instrument 43-101 are available at our website www.corriente.com.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained herein.

Corriente Resources Inc. (TSX:CTQ)