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Veld Types of South Africa FLORAL, FAUNAL, WETLAND AND AQUATIC ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT AS PART OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND AUTHORISATION PROCESS FOR THE PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION OF A FERROCHROME SMELTER NEAR NORTHAM, LIMPOPO PROVINCE Prepared for SLR Consulting (Africa) (Pty) Ltd. August 2016 SECTION B – Floral Assessment Prepared by: Scientific Aquatic Services Report author: M. Pretorius (Pr.Sci.Nat) Report reviewer: S. van Staden (Pr.Sci.Nat) Report reference: SAS 216168 Date: August 2016 Scientific Aquatic Services CC CC Reg No 2003/078943/23 Vat Reg. No. 4020235273 PO Box 751779 Gardenview 2047 Tel: 011 616 7893 Fax: 086 724 3132 E-mail: [email protected] SAS 216168 - Section B August 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ III 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................... 1 2 GENERAL SITE SURVEY ......................................................................................... 1 3 FLORAL ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY .............................................................. 2 3.1 Floral Species of Conservation Concern .................................................................... 2 3.1.1 IUCN and SANBI RDL Categories ............................................................................. 2 3.1.2 National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Act 10 of 2004) National Threatened or Protected Species Regulations, 2013 ................................................. 4 3.1.3 National Forests Act (Act 84 of 1998) Protected Tree Species .................................. 5 3.1.4 Limpopo Environmental Management Act (Act 7 of 2003) ......................................... 5 3.2 Vegetation Surveys ................................................................................................... 5 3.3 Vegetation Index Score ............................................................................................. 6 4 RESULTS OF FLORAL INVESTIGATION ................................................................ 8 4.1 Habitat Unit 1: Bushveld Habitat Unit ....................................................................... 10 4.1.1 Sandy Thorn Bushveld ............................................................................................ 12 4.1.2 Plains Thorn Bushveld ............................................................................................. 13 4.1.3 Turf Thorn Bushveld ................................................................................................ 13 4.1.4 Mixed Bushveld ....................................................................................................... 14 4.2 Habitat Unit 2: Wetland/ Riparian Habitat Unit ......................................................... 16 4.3 Habitat Unit 3: Secondary Bushveld Habitat Unit ..................................................... 18 4.4 Habitat Unit 4: Transformed Habitat Unit ................................................................. 19 4.5 Floral Species of Conservation Concern Assessment ............................................. 20 4.6 Vegetation Index Score ........................................................................................... 24 4.7 Alien and Invasive Floral Species ............................................................................ 24 4.8 Medicinal Plant Species .......................................................................................... 26 5 SENSITIVITY MAPPING ......................................................................................... 28 6 IMPACT ASSESSMENT ......................................................................................... 31 6.1 Impact 1: Impact on Floral Habitat ........................................................................... 32 6.2 Impact 2: Impact on Floral Diversity ......................................................................... 35 6.3 Impact 3: Impact on Floral SCC ............................................................................... 37 6.4 Impact Assessment Conclusion ............................................................................... 39 7 ALTERNATIVES ASSESSMENT ............................................................................ 39 8 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................... 40 9 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 43 APPENDIX A ...................................................................................................................... 44 ii SAS 216168 - Section B August 2016 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Habitat units identified within the study area. .................................................... 9 Figure 2: Representative photographs of the Sandy Thorn Bushveld habitat identified within the study area. ...................................................................................... 12 Figure 3: Representative photographs of the Plains Thorn Bushveld habitat identified within the study area. ...................................................................................... 13 Figure 4: Representative photographs of the Turf Thorn Bushveld habitat identified within the study area. ...................................................................................... 14 Figure 5: Representative photographs of the Mixed Bushveld habitat identified within the study area. ................................................................................................ 15 Figure 6: Representative photographs of the Brakspruit River. ...................................... 16 Figure 7: Representative photographs of the Phufane River. ......................................... 16 Figure 8: Representative photographs of the Wetland feature within the west of the study area. ...................................................................................................... 17 Figure 9: Representative photographs of the Secondary Bushveld Habitat Unit identified within the study area. ....................................................................... 19 Figure 10: Representative photographs of the Secondary Bushveld Habitat Unit identified within the study area. ....................................................................... 20 Figure 11: Vachellia erioloba trees occurring throughout the Sandy Thorn Bushveld habitat, which occur within the eastern portion of the Bushveld Habitat Unit. .. 22 Figure 12: The location of Vachellia erioloba trees identified along the proposed powerline alignment. ....................................................................................... 23 Figure 13: Sensitivity map for the study area. .................................................................. 30 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: National Red List Categories – Version 2014.1 as supplied by SANBI. ................. 3 Table 2: Dominant species encountered in the Bushveld Habitat Unit. Alien species are indicated with an asterisk and floral SCC are indicated in bold. ........................... 11 Table 3: Dominant species encountered in the Wetland and Riparian Habitat Unit. Alien species are indicated with an asterisk. ................................................................ 18 Table 4: Vegetation Index Score. ...................................................................................... 24 Table 5: Dominant alien vegetation species identified during the field assessment. .......... 25 Table 6: Dominant traditional medicinal floral species identified during the field assessment. Medicinal applications and application methods are also presented (van Wyk, Oudtshoorn, Gericke, 2009). .............................................. 27 Table 7: A summary of the impact significance of the construction phase. ........................ 39 iii SAS 216168 - Section B August 2016 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Scientific Aquatic Services (SAS) was appointed to conduct a faunal, floral, wetland and aquatic ecological assessment as part of the environmental assessment and authorisation process for the proposed construction of a new ferrochrome (FeCr) Smelter located immediately adjacent to the existing Union Section Mine on Portion 3 of the farm Grootkuil 409 KQ, in the Thabazimbi Local Municipality, Limpopo Province. The proposed Siyanda ferrochrome smelter (hereafter referred to as the ‘Project Infrastructure Area’), which will in broad terms comprise a railway siding, a raw materials offloading area, two 70 MW DC furnaces, crushing and screening plant, slag dump and baghouse slurry dam, as well as related facilities such as material stockpiles, workshops, stores and various support infrastructure and services, is located within the western portion of Portion 3 of the farm Grootkuil 409 KQ. In addition, an overhead powerline as well as one access road is proposed, with two access road alternatives, namely Access Road Corridor Option 2 and Access Road Option 3, being considered for development. The proposed powerline will originate from the Spitzkop substation to the southeast of Portion 3 of the farm Grootkuil 409 KQ, run north towards the southeastern corner of Portion
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