Fauna Assessment Report

Appendix H Fauna Assessment Report TNG Limited Mount Peake Project Fauna Assessment Report November 2015 Executive Summary Project description and objectives of this assessment TNG Limited is proposing to develop the Mount Peake Project (the Project) consisting of: The mining of a polymetallic ore body through an open-pit truck and shovel operation Processing of the ore to produce a magnetite concentrate Road haulage of the concentrate approximately 100 km to a new railway siding and loadout facility on the Alice Springs to Darwin railway near Adnera Rail transport of the concentrate to TNG’s proposed Darwin Refinery at Middle Arm. Mined ore will be transported by haul truck from the mine pit and stockpiled on-site at a run of mine (ROM) pad prior to processing. Mining will commence with a “starter pit” accessing high grade and low strip ratio ore. The mining rate will progressively increase to 8.4 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) and, following processing, up to 1.8 Mtpa of magnetite concentrate will be produced. The life of the mine is expected to be 19 years inclusive of construction (2 years), mining and production (15 years), and closure and rehabilitation (2 years). The mining area is located approximately 235 km north north-west of Alice Springs and approximately 50 km west of the Stuart Highway. The main objective of this report is to satisfy the fauna assessment requirements of the Terms of Reference set by the Northern Territory Environment Protection Authority (NT EPA) for assessment of the Mount Peake Project. Methods used for this assessment Information presented in this report was obtained using the following methods: Desktop searches of government database information relating to fauna distributions, including the Commonwealth Department of the Environment (DotE) PMST and the NT Department of Land Resource Management (DLRM) Fauna Atlas database Undertaking a six-day fauna survey (9 – 14 April 2013) of the study area, using a range of trapping and non-trapping sampling techniques designed to gain as complete a description as possible of the relationships between fauna and the available habitats, and target the presence of fauna species listed as threatened/migratory under the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 2006 (TPWC Act) and/or the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) Assessing the regional and national significance of the fauna and its populations of threatened species Determining ways in which the proposed mining operation might impact on the fauna and threatened species, proposing mitigation measures to reduce the risk of impacts, and determining residual risks to fauna including threatened species. Legislative context for this assessment Matters of National Environmental Significance, as defined under the EPBC Act, are known or considered likely to occur within the Project Area. A referral under the EPBC Act was submitted to the Commonwealth Department of the Environment in October 2013. In November 2013, the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment determined that the action (Project) is a “controlled action” and requires formal assessment and approval under the EPBC Act. GHD | Report for TNG Limited - Mount Peake Project, 61/29057/10 | i The Project is being assessed at the level of Environmental Impact Statement under the NT Environmental Assessment Act 1982. This will be done under the NT/Commonwealth bilateral environmental assessment process. Results and discussion Fauna habitats and landscape condition More than 80% of the Burt Plain Bioregion is used for pastoralism. The Project Area lies mainly within Stirling Station which is used for cattle grazing. In general, remnant native vegetation occurs across the vast majority of the Project Area. Historical clearing was typically confined to pastoral infrastructure sites, and impacts from pastoral activities (trampling, grazing and weed invasion) were localised and generally confined to watering points, ephemeral watercourses and stockyards. Low level grazing impacts were evident across much of the Project Area, however, vegetation was generally healthy and active seedling recruitment was evident. Some modification to vegetation structure from fires has occurred within the Project Area. Sixteen sites were established in a representative range of vegetation/habitat types, in locations chosen to maximise the likelihood of detecting fauna, including threatened species: mulga woodland (8 sites), riparian woodland (2 sites), rocky shrubland (3 sites), spinifex grassland (2 sites), and Corymbia woodland (1 site). For the most part, habitat classification is based on landscape features of note (e.g. rocks, waterway, species of dominant trees). Note, however, that while only two sites were formally categorised as spinifex grassland sites, other sites supported spinifex grasses also, particularly rocky shrubland sites and some mulga sites. Fauna species In total, 280 fauna species were identified for the Project Area. This species list includes the PMST report, DLRM database and the fauna survey results. Of the species, 268 are native to the Northern Territory (40 mammals, 145 birds, 74 reptiles and nine amphibians). Six days of intensive fauna sampling by eight zoologists, under suitably dry and warm weather conditions in April 2013, resulted in a list of 116 fauna species (24 mammals, 58 birds, 34 reptiles and no frogs). Each of the sampling techniques resulted in effective sampling of differing taxonomic groups or combinations of groups. In combination, the sampling techniques effectively sampled the fauna as a whole, although species’ accumulation curves showed that additional sampling time would have likely resulted in the detection of additional species. The absence of frogs is explained by the dry conditions prior to and during the survey. Eighteen species detected during the survey had not previously been recorded on the DLRM database for this area. These include 11 native species of mammal (one dunnart and 10 insectivorous bats), three native species of bird and four native species of reptile. Fauna species – patterns among sites and habitats Fauna richness varied among the 16 sites and the five habitats, although statistical analysis suggested that the patterns were very weak. Birds were the most numerous species group, and variation in bird species richness tended to reflect variation in overall species richness. Mammal species richness, while seemingly low at all sites, was boosted by numerous species of insectivorous bats detected at most sites and was considered relatively good for arid Australian habitats. The richness of reptile species was generally low, but varied among sites. When sites were grouped by habitat, fauna species richness was found to be far higher in the mulga habitat than in any other habitat. The rocky shrubland habitat had intermediate to high richness, while Corymbia and riparian woodland habitats had intermediate to low richness. The sites that had spinifex grassland only (and which were treeless, shrubless, and recently burned) had the lowest richness. Patterns in richness were partly explained by the numbers of sites of each habitat type (survey effort). ii | GHD | Report for TNG Limited - Mount Peake Project, 61/29057/10 Up to 38% of species were detected in one habitat type only, which suggests a relatively high degree of fauna specialisation among the habitat types, rather than an even distribution of fauna among the habitat types. This contrasts with the results of the statistical analysis of fauna assemblage patterns, which suggested that distributional patterns were very weak (i.e. an even distribution of fauna among the habitat types). Differences among sites were not driven simply by numbers of species, but were more likely due to subtle differences in the types and/or abundance of fauna that occurred at the sites. Threatened, near-threatened and migratory fauna species The DLRM Fauna Atlas and the PMST results identified 22 threatened vertebrate fauna species (15 mammals, 6 birds and one reptile) for the Project Area. Twenty of these are listed under the EPBC Act and all are listed under NT legislation (TPWC Act). Some of the species (all mammals) are considered extinct in the Northern Territory, and others are predicted to occur but have never before been recorded within the Burt Plains Bioregion. Sixteen threatened or near-threatened species (six mammals, six birds, three reptiles and one frog) are considered likely to occur within the Project Area, either as residents or visitors. Most of these are expected to be rare or very rare. Seven of these species were detected during the fauna survey in April 2013. These include: • Brush-tailed Mulgara (Dasycercus blythi) • Bilby (Macrotis lagotis) • Grey Falcon (Falco hypoleucos) • Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) • Australian Bustard (Ardeotis australis) • Woma Python (Aspidites ramsayi) • King Brown Snake (Pseudechis australis). The Brush-tailed Mulgara and Bilby were not observed, but were considered likely to be present on the basis of indirect signs (burrows, diggings and scratchings). Our confidence in the identification of the mulgara burrow was relatively high – the burrow was fresh and active, and showed the characteristic signs of a burrow of this species (as experienced by GHD zoologists in the Pilbara region in Western Australia, where live animals have been captured). Failure to detect a live animal at the burrow thereafter (remote sensing camera) may be explained by the species’ known sensitivity

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