Palaeontological Impact Assessment for the Proposed Sand Mining Operation Farm Jannelsepan Northeast of Louisvale, !Kai Garib Municipality, Northern Cape Province
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Palaeontological Impact Assessment for the proposed sand mining operation farm Jannelsepan northeast of Louisvale, !Kai Garib Municipality, Northern Cape Province Desktop Study For Van Zyl’s Blasting en Grondwerke CC 25 February 2018 Prof Marion Bamford Palaeobotanist P Bag 652, WITS 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa [email protected] Expertise of Specialist The Palaeontologist Consultant is: Prof Marion Bamford Qualifications: PhD (Wits Univ, 1990); FRSSAf, ASSAf Experience: 30 years research; 22 years PIA studies Declaration of Independence This report has been compiled by Professor Marion Bamford, of the University of the Witwatersrand, sub-contracted by Van Zyl’s Blasting en Grondwerke CC, South Africa. The views expressed in this report are entirely those of the author and no other interest was displayed during the decision-making process for the Project. Specialist: Prof Marion Bamford Signature: 1 Executive Summary Van Zyl’s Blasting en Grondwerke CC approached the palaeontologist to conduct a desktop Palaeontological assessment for the proposed sand mining site along the Donkerhoekspruit on the farm Jannelsepan, north east of Louisvale, !Kai Garib Municipality, Northern Cape. The proposed mining area lies on Kalahari sands and ancient volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Namaqua-Natal Province and in particular the Jannelsepan Formation migmatitic amphibolites and calc-silicates and the amphibolites of the Dagbreek Formation. These rocks are too old for body fossils and of the wrong type, being igneous. The sand to be mined is alluvial and would not contain fossils either. As far as the palaeontological heritage is concerned the project can continue and no further assessment is required. 2 Table of Contents Expertise of Specialist...................................................................................................................... 1 Declaration of Independence ........................................................................................................... 1 1. Background ...................................................................................................................................... 4 2. Methods and Terms of Reference ................................................................................................... 6 3. Geology and Palaeontology ............................................................................................................. 6 i. Project location and geological context ....................................................................................... 6 ii. Palaeontological context ............................................................................................................. 8 4. Impact assessment .......................................................................................................................... 8 5. Assumptions and uncertainties ........................................................................................................ 1 6. Recommendation ............................................................................................................................. 1 7. References ....................................................................................................................................... 1 3 1. Background Van Zyl’s Blasting en Grondwerke CC approached the palaeontologist to conduct a desktop palaeontological impact assessment on a proposed sand mining site along the Donkerhoekspruit on the farm Jannelsepan, north east of Louisvale, !Kai Garib Municipality, Northern Cape. The environment of the proposed mining site is within the banks of a narrow spruit on the farm Jannelsepan, about 5.5 km east of the Orange River, and 4.5 km north east of Louisvale near Upington. The surrounding landscape is typical of what occurs a short distance away from the Orange River in this region. It tends to be rocky with shallow sandy soils and relatively little to extremely sparse vegetation. This particular stretch of the Donkerhoekspruit has quite marked riverine vegetation, where patches of deeper sediment are preserved. It was indicated that the major anticipated impact of sand mining would be directly within the dry sandy bed of the spruit, between its current banks. As requested here is the palaeontological impact assessment. Table 1: Specialist report requirements in terms of Appendix 6 of the EIA Regulations (2014) A specialist report prepared in terms of the Environmental Impact Relevant section in Regulations of 2014 must contain: report Details of the specialist who prepared the report Appendix A The expertise of that person to compile a specialist report including a curriculum Appendix A vitae A declaration that the person is independent in a form as may be specified by the Page 1 competent authority An indication of the scope of, and the purpose for which, the report was prepared Section 1 The date and season of the site investigation and the relevance of the season to N/A the outcome of the assessment A description of the methodology adopted in preparing the report or carrying out Section 2 the specialised process Section ii The specific identified sensitivity of the site related to the activity and its associated structures and infrastructure Error! Reference source not found. An identification of any areas to be avoided, including buffers N/A A map superimposing the activity including the associated structures and infrastructure on the environmental sensitivities of the site including areas to be N/A avoided, including buffers; A description of any assumptions made and any uncertainties or gaps in Section 5 knowledge; 4 A description of the findings and potential implications of such findings on the impact of the proposed activity, including identified alternatives, on the Section 4 environment Any mitigation measures for inclusion in the EMPr n/a Any conditions for inclusion in the environmental authorisation n/a Any monitoring requirements for inclusion in the EMPr or environmental n/a authorisation A reasoned opinion as to whether the proposed activity or portions thereof should N/A be authorised If the opinion is that the proposed activity or portions thereof should be authorised, any avoidance, management and mitigation measures that should be N/A included in the EMPr, and where applicable, the closure plan A description of any consultation process that was undertaken during the course N/A of carrying out the study A summary and copies if any comments that were received during any N/A consultation process Any other information requested by the competent authority. N/A Figure 1: Detailed map from Google Earth of the proposed mining areas along the Donkerhoekspruit about 5.5km east of the Orange River, and 4.5 km northeast of Louisvale near Upington, Northern Cape Province. 5 2. Methods and Terms of Reference The Terms of Reference (ToR) for this study were to undertake a PIA and provide feasible management measures to comply with the requirements of SAHRA. The methods employed to address the ToR included: 1. Consultation of geological maps, literature, palaeontological databases, published and unpublished records to determine the likelihood of fossils occurring in the affected areas. Sources included records housed at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand and SAHRA databases; 2. Where necessary, site visits by a qualified palaeontologist to locate any fossils and assess their importance (not applicable to this assessment); 3. Where appropriate, collection of unique or rare fossils with the necessary permits for storage and curation at an appropriate facility (not applicable to this assessment); and 4. Determination of fossils representivity or scientific importance to decide if the fossils can be destroyed or a representative sample collected (not applicable to this assessment). 3. Geology and Palaeontology i. Project location and geological context Figure 2: Geological map of the area northeast of Louisvale and south of the Orange River that has been selected for sand mining operations. The proposed site is indicated by the blue arrow. Abbreviations of the rock types are explained in Table 2. Map enlarged from the Geological Survey 1: 1 000 000 map 1984. 6 Table 2: Explanation of symbols for the geological map and approximate ages (Cornell et al., 2006; Erikssen et al., 2006. Johnson et al., 2006; Partridge et al., 2006). SG = Supergroup; Fm = Formation. Symbol Group/Formation Lithology Approximate Age Quaternary sand; Q Sands, alluvium, calcrete Last 2.5 Ma Gordonia Fm Mho Hoogoor Suite Pink gneiss Vaalputs Gneiss, Keimos Mva gneiss Suite Friersdale Charnockite, Mfr Charnockitic adamellite 1080-1090 Ma Keimos Suite Granite Mke granite (undifferentiated) MA Basic intrusive rocks Metanorite, met gabbro MB Daberas Granodiorite Gneiss, granite Mto Toeslaan Fm, Koranaland Kinzigite Ca 1240 Ma Group Msr Eierdoppan and Sprigg, Schist, gneiss, kinzigite Koranaland Group Mj Jannelsepan Fm, Migmatitic amphibolite, (Koranaland) Areachap calc-silicate rocks Group Mgo Goede Hoop Fm, Pink gneiss, quartzite, Koranaland Group schist, amphibolite, calc- Sequence silicate rocks Mge Geelvloer Quartzite, calc-silicate rocks Vdg Dagbreek Fm, Schist, quartzite, Ca 1300 Ma Vaalkoppies Group amphibolite The proposed sand mining site lies in the Areachap Terrane of the Namaqua-Natal Province which has been broadly dated to between 1200 and 1000 Ma (Cornell et al., 2006). This complex of metamorphic rocks has been intruded by pre-tectonic intrusive