Benton to Acquire Significant Shareholding in Coro Mining Corp.

Benton Resources Corp. announce that it has agreed, subject to certain conditions, to subscribe to a non-brokered private placement in Coro Mining Corp.. The Company will, upon closing, acquire 27,272,727 units of Coro at a price of $0.11 per unit for a total investment of CAD$3,000,000, each unit consisting of one common share and one common share purchase warrant of Coro. Each Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share of Coro for a period of two years at a price of $0.18 for the first year from the date of closing and at a price of $0.20 thereafter until the expiry date. Benton’s investment, which is to be made from cash on hand, is part of a private placement of Coro of up to $4.5 million on the same terms with the remaining $1.5 million to be subscribed for by unrelated parties. Assuming the full $4.5 million private placement is completed Benton will then own approximately 34% of the issued shares of Coro prior to Benton exercising any of the Warrants. The private placement, which is expected to close by January 16, 2009, is subject to certain conditions precedent, including regulatory approval, completion of due diligence by January 5, 2009, the appointment of Benton board members to Coro’s board of directors and amendments to certain option payment terms that apply to an option agreement that Coro is a party to.

Coro is a Latin America focused exploration and development company whose principal asset is the San Jorge copper gold project, located in the Province of Mendoza, Argentina. In April 2008, Coro announced the conclusions of an independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”), for a Float Only project at San Jorge which contemplates the production of an average of 39,500 metric tonnes (approximately 90,000,000 lbs) per year of copper and 39,000 oz per year of gold contained in concentrate for a period of 16 years. The Float Only project has NI 43-101 compliant Measured and Indicated Resources of 152 million tonnes at 0.48%CuT and 0.20g/t Au containing approximately 719,000 tonnes (1,584 million lbs) of copper and 984,000 ounces of gold. It also has Inferred Resources of 11 million tonnes at 0.38%CuT and 0.16g/t Au containing approximately 43,000 tonnes (95 million lbs) of copper and 57,000 ounces of gold. At a copper price of US$1.65/lb and a gold price of US$600/oz, the PEA concluded that the project has an after tax NPV 10 of US$82 million with an IRR of 17.7%. At US$2.00/lb copper and US$600/oz gold, the NPV 10 increases to US$220 million with an IRR of 28.6%. Note: for the purposes of the PEA mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

In October 2008, Coro announced that an Environmental Impact Study (“EIS”) for San Jorge had been formally accepted to enter the evaluation process by the Secretary of the Environment of the Government of Mendoza.

The potential to increase resources at San Jorge is considered good. The drilling to date was completed to outline a near surface oxide resource and as such many of the drill holes are terminated in copper sulphide mineralization. A geotechnical drill hole completed near the southwest margin of the proposed pit intersected mineralized rock. Assays have not been received for the core which is currently outside the 2008 pit wall design. Alteration, mineralization, and structural vectors indicate the deposit may be open to the northeast as well. The presences of two other alteration areas of equal size to the San Jorge deposit has been identified but have seen no exploration to date.

Coro also has a portfolio of properties in Chile, including the scoping stage Barreal Seco copper project, the Andrea and Chacay porphyry copper prospects, and an exploration agreement with Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corp. for its Talca Belt reconnaissance stage copper prospects.

Barreal Seco is an IOCG-type deposit with a NI 43-101 compliant resource of approximately 92.2 million tonnes grading 0.53% copper in the measured and indicated categories between the oxide, mixed, and sulphide material. The Andrea property is an early stage exploration play for porphyry-hosted copper-gold mineralization. Highlights of the limited historic shallow diamond drilling produced mineralization grading 1.24g/t gold with 0.81% copper over 49 metres and 1.16g/t gold with 0.92% copper over 31 metres. The potential to define a deposit of economic significance at Andrea is considered good given the extensive alteration in the porphyry body and the mineralized drill intersections to date. Chacay is an early stage exploration project and three previous drill holes completed by First Quantum Minerals in 1995 intersected significant copper mineralization that included 78 metres grading 0.44% copper. The mineralization consists of chalcocite and copper oxides, all amenable to solvent-extraction electro-winning (SE-EW) techniques. Further information can be found on Coro’s website, www.coromining.com.