Desktop Assessment of Subterranean Fauna for the Norseman Gold Project, Norseman, Western Australia Report by Invertebrate Solutions Pty Ltd for Pantoro South Pty Ltd June 2020 Dr Timothy Moulds Director and Principal Ecologist Invertebrate Solutions Pty Ltd PO Box 14 Victoria Park, WA 6979 Australia [email protected] www.invertebratesolutions.com Desktop assessment for subterranean fauna for the Norseman Gold Project, Norseman, Western Australia. Unpublished report to Pantoro South Pty Ltd, June 2020. Report Number 2020ISJ0702_F01_20200603 Prepared for: Pantoro South Pty Ltd Frontispiece: The conservation listed troglobiont isopod Paraplatyarthrus subterraneus from the Goldfields region. Image Copyright Dr Mohammad Javidkar (Javidkar and King et al. 2017). COPYRIGHT: This document has been prepared to the requirements of the client identified above, and no representation is made to any third party. Copyright and any other Intellectual Property associated with the document belongs to Invertebrate Solutions and may not be reproduced without written permission of the Client or Invertebrate Solutions. It may be cited for the purposes of scientific research or other fair use, but it may not be reproduced or distributed to any third party by any physical or electronic means without the express permission of the client for whom it was prepared or Invertebrate Solutions. Norseman Gold Project – Subterranean Fauna Desktop Review Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... v 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Purpose of this report ..................................................................................................... 4 1.2. Project and Desktop Study Area ..................................................................................... 4 1.3. Documents examined ..................................................................................................... 4 1.4. Conservation Legislation and Guidance Statements ...................................................... 4 1.5. Classifications of subterranean dependence .................................................................. 7 1.6. Report Limitations and Exclusions .................................................................................. 7 1.7. Assumptions and Limitations .......................................................................................... 8 2. Desktop Methods ................................................................................................................... 9 3. Desktop Subterranean Fauna Review ................................................................................. 10 3.1 Subterranean fauna in the Yilgarn ......................................................................... 10 3.2 Conservation Significant Fauna and Habitats ........................................................ 11 3.3 Subterranean Fauna Habitat in the Project Areas ................................................ 11 3.4 Likelihood of stygofauna presence ........................................................................ 17 3.5 Likelihood of troglofauna presence ....................................................................... 17 4. Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................................... 19 5. References ........................................................................................................................... 20 Appendix 1 Department of Parks and Wildlife Conservation Codes (November 2015) Appendix 2 Protected Matters Search Results List of Figures Figure 1 Norseman Gold Project subterranean fauna desktop study area. .............................. 2 Figure 2 Norseman Gold Project Areas ..................................................................................... 3 Page 1 Norseman Gold Project – Subterranean Fauna Desktop Review List of Tables Table 1 Conservation significant invertebrates potentially within the Desktop Study area. .. 11 Table 2 Norseman Gold Project areas and representative core samples showing potential subterranean fauna habitat. ...................................................................................... 12 Table 3 Geological units in the Norseman Gold Project and Subterranean fauna habitat potential. .................................................................................................................... 16 Table 4 Troglofauna recorded from the Desktop Study Area. ................................................ 17 List of Plates Plate 1 Flowchart of the process for undertaking subterranean fauna assessments for impact assessment in Western Australia (EPA 2016). ................................................. 6 Plate 2 Extract of the local geology of Norseman from Norseman 1:250,000 sheet SI 51-2 with approximate locations of the Norseman Gold Project locations shown in red. ................................................................................................................................... 15 Page 1 Norseman Gold Project – Subterranean Fauna Desktop Review Executive Summary Pantoro South Pty Ltd (Pantoro) is currently in the process of developing the Norseman Gold Project (the Project), a series of open pit and underground gold mines located southern Goldfield region of Western Australia, near the Norseman townsite. The Norseman Gold Project consists of seven separate Project areas: North Royal, Cobbler, Gladstone, TSF4, Ok, Maybell and Scotia. The proposed Norseman Gold Project areas are located in the vicinity of the Norseman townsite, in the Goldfields region of Western Australia and is shown in Figure 1. The desktop study area comprised approximately 17,000 km2 bounded by the north west corner (31.702523°S, 121.041734°E) and the south east corner (32.877950 °S, 122.449994°E) centred on the Norseman Gold Project (Figure 1). Invertebrate Solutions undertook a desktop assessment for subterranean fauna (stygofauna and troglofauna) for the Norseman Gold Project area. Searches of the Western Australian Museum databases for Crustaceans and Arachnids/Myriapods were undertaken for an area comprising of approximately 17,000 km2 centred on the seven Norseman Gold Project areas. Core photos and hydrogeological information including water quality was also assessed. No previous stygofauna records are held within WAM databases. This is due to both an absence of previous assessments for stygofauna within the Norseman region, but also reflects the general absence of stygofauna habitat within the local Norseman region. The groundwater in the Norseman area associated with the seven Project areas is mostly hypersaline, especially with depth and with proximity to the salt lakes in the immediate region. This precludes the presence of stygofauna in all the seven Project areas when combined with an absence of voids or fractures in examined core photos from all Project areas within saturated depth zones. Only two troglofauna records for the Norseman region are held by WAM, although another five species are recorded from the Mt Henry mine site, hosted in mineralised BIF that is known in other parts of Western Australia and internationally to provide troglofauna habitat. The geology within the Norseman region excluding the minor BIF ridge is dominated by saprolitic clays and salt lake sediments that are both unsuitable for troglofauna as they contain no interconnected pore spaces. Troglofauna outside of BIF geologies in the Norseman region have a Nil or Low likelihood of occurrence. The construction and operation of underground and open cut mining operations, including tailings storage facilities and associated infrastructure are expected to pose a low risk to potential stygofauna and troglofauna due to the general low likelihood of subterranean fauna presence and the small areas proposed to be developed as part of the Norseman Gold Project. Page 1 Norseman Gold Project – Subterranean Fauna Desktop Review 1. Introduction Pantoro South Pty Ltd (Pantoro) is currently in the process of developing the Norseman Gold Project (the Project), a series of open pit and underground gold mines located southern Goldfield region of Western Australia, near the Norseman townsite (Figure 1). The Proposed Project areas are: Gladstone - Daisy and associated dewatering pipeline and access/haul road -Potential additional Open Pits, WRD extensions and Open Pit Cutbacks. North Royal-Slippers - Potential additional Open Pits, WRD extensions, Open Pit Cutbacks and extensions of existing underground. Scotia and associated dewatering pipeline and access/haul road. Open Pits, WRD extensions, Open Pit Cutbacks and extensions of existing underground. OK - Potential existing Underground expansion and WRD expansion. TSF 4 and associated pipeline- TSF expansion-reapplication of expired CPS area Maybell and associated access track- Open Pits, WRD and extensions of existing small underground Cobbler (some additional areas for access/haul roads to be determined)-Lake based pit and WRD. Potential Open pit and Underground. Invertebrate Solutions has been requested by Pantoro to undertake a desktop assessment for subterranean fauna (stygofauna and troglofauna)