OTTAWA, Dec. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc. ("Cornerstone" or "the Company") (TSXV:CGP) (Frankfurt:GWN) (Berlin:GWN) (OTC:CTNXF) announces that it was notified late yesterday of a decision by Ecuador's Constitutional Court upholding a lower court ruling that invalidated the environmental registration granted by the Ministry of Environment (ME) to Ecuador's state mining company ENAMI EP for the initial (prior to drilling) exploration phase in the "Los Cedros" Protected Forest (Bosque Protector) at the Rio Magdalena project that forms 3 of the 9 concessions within the Cornerstone Ecuador S.A. ("CESA") - ENAMI EP strategic exploration alliance (the "ENAMI-CESA SEA") in Northwest Ecuador (See "About the ENAMI EP - Cornerstone Strategic Exploration Alliance (SEA)", below), in which CESA has the option to earn up to an 84% interest.

Several prospective zones were defined at the Rio Magdalena Project and initial results released on February 27, 2020 (NR 20-05: ).

As noted in Cornerstone's March 4, 2021 news release, work was suspended at the Rio Magdalena block pending a decision in the Constitutional Court of Ecuador on a challenge filed by ENAMI to a lower court decision that purported to invalidate the environmental registration exploration permit granted by ME for the Rio Magdalena block of concessions, approximately 2/3rds of which are located within Los Cedros.

The background to the case was summarized in our March 4, 2021 news release, as follows:

"By way of background, in 2019 the Municipality of Cotacachi in Northwest Ecuador (Province of Imbabura) brought an action in a local court requesting that the court order ME to revoke ENAMI's environmental registration on the grounds that no prior consultations with local communities had taken place. ENAMI defended the action on the basis that no such consultations were required. This position was supported by a friend of the court brief filed in the action by ME. The lower court ruled against ENAMI.

ENAMI has challenged the lower court decision in the Constitutional Court (acción extraordinaria de protección) on the grounds that the lower court erred by seeking to impose a requirement for prior environmental consultation, when in fact the regulator, ME, currently does not require a public consultation process during early stage exploration phase (1^st 4 years), and only an environmental registration permit is required (including for scout drilling). ENAMI's position was supported by a friend of the court brief filed in the Constitutional Court by ME. It is not known when the Constitutional Court will render a decision in the Rio Magdalena case.

A few facts: (1) Enami and CESA have all the legally required permits to be doing early stage exploration; (2) although not legally required, CESA did consult the communities beforehand, with ME representatives in attendance; (3) none of the Rio Magdalena lands are ancestral indigenous lands, so no consultation for indigenous peoples is required either under the Constitution or under International Labour Organization (ILO) Treaty 169; (4) the lower court decision confirmed that the Los Cedros Protected Forest was not within a SNAP area and that there was no environmental damage found on the concessions caused by either ENAMI or CESA; and (5) ENAMI and CESA have the strong support of the local communities."

Cornerstone is consulting with its Ecuadorian legal counsel, with ENAMI and ME and the Chamber of Mines to determine what rights and remedies Cornerstone and ENAMI may have, including the possibility of the Constitutional Court decision allowing for a new application for an environmental registration subject to ME approved terms of reference for a public consultation process that could be undertaken in the future to continue exploration at Rio Magdalena.

Cornerstone will be filing a petition to the Constitutional Court next week for clarification of the effect of the decision.

Cornerstone will provide an update on Rio Magdalena after such consultations when we have a clearer idea of the impact of the decision on the project.

This decision does not affect the Cascabel project, as Cascabel is not in a protected forest and is already in the advanced (economic evaluation) stage of exploration and has an environmental license obtained after prior community consultations were undertaken pursuant to terms of reference approved by ME.

About the ENAMI EP - Cornerstone Strategic Exploration Alliance (SEA)

Qualified Person

Yvan Crepeau, MBA, P.Geo., Cornerstone's Vice President, Exploration and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Rio Magdalena project for Cornerstone and has reviewed and approved the information contained in this news release.

Investor Inquiries

Further information is available on Cornerstone's website: www.cornerstoneresources.com and on Twitter. For investor, corporate or media inquiries, please contact ir@cornerstoneresources.ca, or:

Investor Relations:
Mario Drolet; Email: Mario@mi3.ca; Tel. (514) 904-1333

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Cautionary Notice:
This news release may contain 'Forward-Looking Statements' that involve risks and uncertainties, such as statements of Cornerstone's beliefs, plans, objectives, strategies, intentions and expectations. The words "potential," "anticipate," "forecast," "believe," "estimate," "intend", "trends", "indicate", "expect," "may," "should," "could", "project," "plan," or the negative or other variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify 'Forward-Looking Statements.' Although Cornerstone believes that its expectations reflected in these 'Forward-Looking Statements' are reasonable, such statements may involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed in our regulatory filings, viewed on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets, predicting natural geological phenomena and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of an environmental, climatic, natural, political, economic, business, competitive, or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our Forward-Looking Statements. Although Cornerstone believes the facts and information contained in this news release to be as correct and current as possible, Cornerstone does not warrant or make any representation as to the accuracy, validity or completeness of any facts or information contained herein and these statements should not be relied upon as representing its views after the date of this news release. While Cornerstone anticipates that subsequent events may cause its views to change, it expressly disclaims any obligation to update the Forward-Looking Statements contained herein except where outcomes have varied materially from the original statements.

On behalf of the Board,
Brooke Macdonald
President and CEO

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.