Corriente Granted a Controlling Interest in The Mirador Project, Ecuador.

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2002

Corriente Resources (TSX:CTQ)

-- No back-in rights retained by BHP Billiton at Mirador, San

Carlos and Panantza deposits

Corriente has received notice from BHP Billiton that the Mirador project will be separated from the existing copper-gold joint venture in Ecuador and exploration concessions will be transferred to Corriente. BHP Billiton has 30 days to make an election on the Mirador prospect to retain a 30% participating interest or revert to a 2% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR) interest, as was done at the Panantza and San Carlos projects earlier this year. Corriente has the option at any time to purchase half (50%) of the NSR for $2 Million U.S. J. David Lowell holds a 10% interest in Corriente's interest in all three Ecuador prospects.

Corriente now controls three copper and copper-gold deposits in Ecuador with over 500 Million tonnes of inferred and indicated resources. There are no back-in rights retained by BHP Billiton on any of these three deposits and Corriente is carrying out joint venture discussions and field reviews with interested parties. These include the San Carlos project with an inferred resource of approximately 200 Million tonnes at a grade of 0.85% copper with potential for expansion (for details see press release dated June 26, 2001). The San Carlos prospect lies 4 kilometres east of Corriente's Panantza prospect, which has an indicated resource of 150 Million tonnes at 0.82% copper, and 0.1 g/t gold as calculated by Geospectrum Engineering (for details see press release of June 26, 2001). The third deposit under the control of Corriente is Mirador with an inferred resource of approximately 200 Million tonnes at a grade of 0.73% copper and 0.25 g/t gold - copper equivalent grade of 0.85% (for details see press release of Feb 14, 2002).

Working with an experienced mining partner, Corriente will select at least one project for development to the feasibility stage over the next 18 months. Such a study will be able to gauge the impact of the abundant local hydropower potential, an existing road network to the coast and the availability of warehouse and associated ocean shipping facilities in nearby Machala. Our vision for development of the Ecuador projects is to first put in production a medium sized mining operation that has significant cash flow to fund operations to the highest environmental and safety standards but is small enough to ensure that overhead and management costs are among the most efficient in the world. Subsequent development of Corriente assets in Ecuador would be completed using the first deposit as a base for growth and utilizing the cash flow from the mine to fund new operations.

Exploration plans for drilling in 2003 are currently being finalized and Corriente is reviewing the extensive data set from a number of prospects within our concessions in southeast Ecuador. Additional input to the 2003 exploration plans will be provided by a field review which is currently underway in Ecuador and is looking at specific copper, copper-gold and gold targets which may have the potential to develop into opportunities with our exploration alliance partner BHP Billiton.

A map of the Mirador property is available on the company's website at www.corriente.com.

Corriente is a Canadian-based junior resource exploration company that has a global copper exploration alliance with BHP Billiton who is one of the world's largest mining companies. Corriente focuses its exploration on copper and copper-gold projects at the advanced drilling stage with the intent of discovering a deposit which would be suitable for development by our alliance partner. The Company's main activity is the Corriente Copper Belt which is a copper porphyry district that extends over an area at least 80 km north-south and 40 km east-west in Southeast Ecuador. To date, diamond drilling has outlined four separate porphyry deposits: Panantza, Mirador, San Carlos and Warintza. These four deposits are part of a series of copper porphyry targets contained within the district.

BHP Billiton is the largest diversified natural resources company in the world. Created from a merger between Australian-based natural resources company BHP Limited and Anglo - South African miner Billiton Plc, BHP Billiton occupies industry-leader, or near leader, positions in aluminium, metallurgical coal, seaborne steaming coal, copper, ferro-alloys, iron ore and titanium minerals. BHP Billiton also has substantial worldwide interests in oil, gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), nickel, diamonds and silver. BHP Billiton employs about 40,000 people in 30 countries and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

Kenneth R. Shannon, President

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