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Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment

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Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment ATLAS IRON LIMITED WELD RANGE DSO PROJECT FLORA AND VEGETATION ASSESSMENT MAY 2009 A.C.N. 088 055 903 Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment DOCUMENT REVISION HISTORY Revision Description Originator Reviewed Date A Released to the client for DC CG 7/4/09 review B Client comments incorporated DC Brendan 31/04/09 Bow 0 Final Report DC Brendan 22/5/09 Bow WEC REF: Atlas08-10-02 DISCLAIMER This document is prepared in accordance with and subject to an agreement between Woodman Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd (“Woodman Environmental”) and the client for whom it has been prepared (“Atlas Iron Limited”) and is restricted to those issues that have been raised by the Client in its engagement of Woodman Environmental and prepared using the standard of skill and care ordinarily exercised by Environmental Scientists in the preparation of such Documents. Any organisation or person that relies on or uses this document for purposes or reasons other than those agreed by Woodman Environmental and the Client without first obtaining the prior written consent of Woodman Environmental, does so entirely at their own risk and Woodman Environmental denies all liability in tort, contract or otherwise for any loss, damage or injury of any kind whatsoever (whether in negligence or otherwise) that may be suffered as a consequence of relying on this document for any purpose other than that agreed with the Client. Woodman Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY......................................................................................................................i 1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................1 1.1 PROJECT DESCRIPTION..............................................................................................................1 1.2 AIMS ..........................................................................................................................................2 2. BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................3 2.1 CLIMATE....................................................................................................................................3 2.2 SOILS AND LANDFORMS.............................................................................................................4 2.3 FLORA AND VEGETATION SURVEYS ..........................................................................................4 2.3.1 Sources of Information.............................................................................................................4 2.3.2 Flora...................................................................................................................................5 2.3.3 Vegetation............................................................................................................................8 3. METHODS...................................................................................................................................12 3.1 LICENCES AND TIMING OF SURVEY .........................................................................................12 3.2 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY INTERPRETATION ..............................................................................12 3.3 FIELD SURVEY .........................................................................................................................12 3.4 PLANT COLLECTION AND IDENTIFICATION.............................................................................13 3.5 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................13 3.6 DESCRIPTION OF FLORISTIC COMMUNITY TYPES.....................................................................14 3.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF FLORA AND VEGETATION...........................................................................15 3.7.1 Significance of Flora Taxa.....................................................................................................15 3.7.2 Significance of Vegetation ......................................................................................................15 4. RESULTS......................................................................................................................................17 4.1 FLORA .....................................................................................................................................17 4.1.1 Conservation-Significant Flora Taxa .......................................................................................17 4.1.2 Other Flora of Interest..........................................................................................................19 4.1.3 Conservation Significance of Flora Taxa...................................................................................19 4.2 FLORISTIC COMMUNITY TYPES ................................................................................................21 4.2.1 Weld Range DSO Project area Floristic Community Types..........................................................23 4.2.2 Significance of Vegetation ......................................................................................................30 5. DISCUSSION ...............................................................................................................................33 6. RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................34 7. REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................35 TABLES Table 1: Conservation-Significant Taxa Recorded by Markey & Dillon (2006) from the Weld Range Table 2: DRF and Priority Flora Potentially Found Within or in the Vicinity of the Project area Table 3: Description, Pre-European Extent, Current Extent and Reservation Status of Vegetation Associations Related to Physiognomy in the Project area Woodman Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment Table 4: Significance of Local Populations to the Overall/Regional Conservation of Species Table 5: Descriptions of Conservation Significance Rankings of Floristic Community Types Table 6: Conservation Significance of Flora Taxa Populations within the Project area Table 7: Conservation Significance of FCTs Described within the Project area FIGURES Figure 1: Average Maximum and Minimum Temperatures (oCelsius) and Average Rainfall (mm) for Cue Figure 2a: Project area Floristic Community Types and Significant Flora Taxa Figure 2b: Project area Floristic Community Types and Significant Flora Taxa showing aerial photography PLATES Plate 1: FCT 5 - Quadrat WR11 (Woodman Environmental) Plate 2: FCT 6a - Quadrat WR12 (Woodman Environmental) Plate 3: FCT 6b - Quadrat WR15 (Woodman Environmental) Plate 4: FCT 8 - Quadrat WR03 (Woodman Environmental) APPENDICIES Appendix A: Definitions of Conservation Status Codes Appendix B: Definitions, Categories and Criteria for Threatened and Priority Ecological Communities Appendix C: Vascular Plant Taxa Recorded Within the Project area, 2008 Appendix D: Vascular Plant Species Recorded in Each Floristic Community Type in the Project area, 2008 Appendix E: Raw Quadrat Data from the Project area Appendix F: Taxa amalgamated for the Project area Quadrat Analysis Appendix G: Summary Dendongram of Floristic Community Types of the W Project area Appendix H: Summary Matrix of Species Presence within Quadrats in the Project area Woodman Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment Appendix I: Significant Indicator Species of the 7-Group Classification of the Project area Woodman Environmental Consulting Pty Ltd Atlas Iron Limited Weld Range DSO Project Flora and Vegetation Assessment EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Atlas Iron Limited (Atlas) is currently conducting preliminary exploration drilling for iron ore, with the view of mining the ore depending on the results of drilling, within tenement M20/118, as part of its Weld Range Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) Project. The Weld Range DSO Project area (‘Project area) is located within the Mid-West Region, approximately 60 km north north-east of Cue, in the Weld Range. Atlas initially commissioned Woodman Environmental Consulting (Woodman Environmental) in 2007 to conduct a desktop flora and vegetation study of the Project area. Following the completion of this study, Atlas commissioned Woodman Environmental in 2008 to undertake a detailed flora and vegetation survey of the Project area. The level of Flora and Vegetation survey for the Project area has been defined as a Level 2 Survey, which consists of background research/desktop study and reconnaissance survey, followed by either a detailed or comprehensive survey. The level of survey required has been determined from Table 2 of the Environmental Protection Authority’s Guidance Statement No. 51, where the Bioregion Group is defined as Group 2, and the nature of the potential impact is considered to be moderate. A total of 17 permanent 20 m by 20 m vegetation assessment quadrats were established over the Project area. All types of vegetation units discernable from aerial photographs (scale 1:10,000) were surveyed with at least
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