Coventry Minerals Ltd. April 5 published a mineral resource estimate for Caribou Dome and said it has begun a preliminary scoping study to evaluate the viability of developing an open-pit mine at this high-grade copper project in Southcentral Alaska.

Using a 0.5 percent cut-off grade, 2.8 million metric tons of total resource (measured, indicated and inferred) averaging 3.1 percent (86,000 metric tons) copper has been delineated at Caribou Dome. This includes 1.6 million metric tons of resource averaging 3 percent (48,900 metric tons) copper considered amenable for open-pit mining and 1.2 million metric tons averaging 3.2 percent (37,300 metric tons) considered underground resource.

This resource is found along 800 meters of strike around a historically explored area at Caribou Dome.

Over the past two years, Coventry has identified several other areas of high-grade mineralization along a strike length of 11 miles at Caribou Dome, including zones immediately northeast and southwest of the deposit.

The company also pointed out that the second deepest hole drilled at the Caribou Dome deposit cut 15.4 meters averaging 7 percent copper, indicating the potential to extend the deposit to depth.

Coventry said it plans to target both the strike and depth extension of Caribou Dome, though no details of a 2017 program where reported.

The resource reported conforms to JORC standards, the Australian standard for reporting exploration results that is similar to NI 43-101 in Canada.

Coventry is headquartered in Perth, Australia.

-SHANE LASLEY