Corriente Resumes Drilling at the Mirador Copper-Gold Deposit in South-East Ecuador.

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2002

Corriente Resources(TSE:CTQ.) Drilling is underway at the Mirador project under the direction of J. David Lowell. Initial drilling will start approximately 100 metres north of hole M-51, which was one of the last holes drilled in the previous drilling campaign. This vertical drill hole returned 336 metres of 0.86% copper and 0.42 g/t gold (1.07% copper equivalent). The drill program at Mirador is designed to increase the size of the deposit, which is currently open to the north and at depth. The Mirador resource has been previously announced as 218 Million tonnes of inferred copper-gold mineralization averaging 0.73% copper and 0.25 g/t gold that would produce a resource containing 3.5 Billion pounds of copper and 1.75 Million ounces of gold. The same announcement reported results from a scoping study which indicated that the inferred resource would generate a Net Present Value of $244 Million U.S. with a pre-tax rate of return of 22% using a copper price of $0.80/pound (for complete details see press release of Feb 14, 2002).

Mirador has a number of attractive characteristics that have elevated it to be one of the main development properties in the Corriente Copper Belt. These include, a low strip ratio as mineralization is near surface on an exposed ridge, high gold component to mineralization (up to 0.42 g/t gold), road access to within two kilometres of the deposit, simple metallurgy as most of the copper is hosted in chalcopyrite with minor bornite and finally a large flat site is available nearby for mill and tailings facilities. Surface rights over the mineralization have been acquired.

Following completion of the drilling currently underway, Corriente will have an independent resource calculation completed on the project. The primary focus of exploration activities at Mirador is to outline a resource that meets the threshold of interest of our global copper alliance partner BHP Billiton. However, should the resource calculation indicate a resource of less than 200 Million tonnes of 1% copper equivalent, then Corriente will present a scoping study to BHP Billiton. This study would be accompanied by a request to have the project removed from the BHP Billiton joint venture and converted to a Corriente/Lowell project with a BHP Billiton net profits interest as was recently completed on the Panantza project (see News Release - April 4, 2002).

Corriente is a Canadian-based junior resource exploration company that has recently announced a global exploration alliance with BHP Billiton. Corriente focuses its operations on copper and copper-gold projects at the advanced drilling stage. The Company's main activity is the advanced exploration of copper prospects within the Corriente Copper Belt joint venture with BHP Billiton and Lowell Mineral Exploration, as well as advanced copper-gold prospects at Mumbwa, Zambia. The Corriente Copper Belt 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 a new global leader in the world's natural resources industry. 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 58,000 people in more than 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.