ScandiVanadium Limited (ASX: SVD) has entered the booming Western Australian gold space after completing its acquisition of the Pascalle Gold Project in the state’s Paterson Province last week.

Management is now forging ahead with its exploration plans at the 100% owned project starting with the mobilisation of a high-resolution electro-magnetic survey.

SVD intends to commence phased exploration over the Pascalle Gold Project and is preparing to commence a high-resolution helicopter electromagnetic (HEM) survey over Pascalle on 15 August 2020.

This comes after renewed exploration of the Paterson Province in recent years, resulting in a number of significant discoveries. These include Greatland Gold’s (AIM: GGP) Havieron Discovery (results comprising 275m @ 4.8g/t Au and 0.6% Cu) and Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) Winu Discovery (results comprising 681m @ 0.49% Cu and 0.33g/t Au). Also in the region is Newcrest Mining’s (ASX: NCM) 32Moz Telfer Mine — within 14 kilometres of Pascalle.

Gold mineralisation in the Paterson Province is linked to specific trap structures associated with regional scale basin bounding faults and granite emplacement.

Significant exploration expenditure has resulted in enhanced understanding of geological controls on mineralisation over the last four years and encouraged new concepts in exploration.

Maiden drill program ahead

In the two months since talk of the acquisition began, SVD shareholders have already logged a 200% gain and with a maiden drilling program to commence later this year the stock is likely to continue attracting the market’s attention.

The group’s swiftness in moving to exploration, along with management’s decision to employ high-tech surveying equipment, reflects its confidence in the project. The strong gold price environment and heightened interest in the Paterson Province also support accelerated exploration.

With completion of the acquisition and award of geophysical contracts the company is moving towards implementation of its phased exploration program at Pascalle.

In the first phase, high-resolution geophysical surveying will provide detailed geological information and allow three-dimensional modelling of targeted anomalies. This enables the design of a maiden drill program which is expected to commence during the second half of 2020.

Commenting on the SVD commencement of exploration, SVD managing director, David Minchin said, “We are excited to be able to hit the ground running with mobilisation of a high-resolution geophysical survey so soon after completing the acquisition of Pascalle Gold and Gnama Nickel Projects.

‘’The system selected is the same as was involved in Rio Tinto’s discovery of Winu and will be vital in the planning of our maiden drilling campaign in H2 2020. ’We are pleased to have secured the highly sought after contractor in a tight market given the increased activity in the Paterson’s for airborne surveys.”

The recent acquisition of the Pascalle Gold Project as part of SVD’s acquisition of Vanatech,

saw it also acquire the Gnama Nickel Project in WA’s Fraser Range Nickel Belt — located not far from the Nova-Bollinger mine, which by IGO acquired for $1.8 billion.

HEM geophysical survey

SVD has appointed New Resolution Geophysics (NRG) to conduct the HEM survey.

As stated above, HEM systems have previously been successful in identifying mineralisation in the Paterson Province, including at Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) Winu deposit, where Rio used NRG’s Xcite™ system in the discovery of the Winu deposit beneath a similar depth of cover.

It stands to reason that the NRG Xcite™ system selected by SVD could therefore be successful in identifying conductivity anomalies associated with Winu / Havieron style mineralisation on the Pascalle tenement.

The system provides uninterrupted ‘soundings’ from near surface to >300m depth of investigation, sufficient to see through Permian cover and reveal conductivity anomalies in the basement rock beneath.

The planned geophysical survey will simultaneously collect information on conductivity and magnetism over the entire Pascalle tenement. Flight lines at 100m spacing and 30-40m elevation will update and infill historic magnetic data collected at a 250m line spacing and 60m elevation, improving resolution and confidence over existing magnetic targets.

Conductivity data will complement existing geophysical datasets allowing a deeper understanding of the geological and mineralogical properties of identified targets.

Further, the shallow depth to basement for Pascalle enhances the effectiveness of the survey and the relatively shallow Permian cover will enable rapid testing of targets.

This NRG Xcite™ system will be vital in planning the group’s maiden drilling campaign in the second half of 2020.

The conductivity data collected will complement existing geophysical datasets including high-resolution Falcon^TM Gravity data allowing for increased geological confidence in targets identified on the Pascalle tenement.

Finfeed: Meagan Evans