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Rössing BiodiversityRössing Uranium Limited intends to expand its operations within its current mining licence area. While ore reserves have been closely identified by geologists, so that their location is known, the siting of other facilities is not as fixed. These other facilities include rock dumps, a proposed new acid plant and infrastructure such as roads and powerlines. Planning where to locate these facilities will be influenced by many factors such as visual impact, dust and chimney emissions, and conservation priority of the species living in the area.The aim of this project is to assess the biodiversity in the various habitats that are to be impacted by the expansion and apply a system of biodiversity quantification that includes the level of endemicity of species and their conservation status. Areas and habitats shown to host high-priority species will be identified, described and mapped, both within the area of mine expansion and the neighbouring areas. Once the high-priority habitats are recognisable in terms of topography, vegetation and other features, it will be possible to check outlying areas for the occurrence of similar habitats. This project will build on plant biodiversity work which has already been conducted in the area by Dr Antje Burke, as well as animal biodiversity work conducted in the mid 1980s by staff of the State Museum. Information gathered from prior work and our own investigation will be fed in to the growing database, thereby gradually building up a model of conservation priority of the different habitats, and the spatial occurrence of the various habitats known to host high-priority species. Likewise, the botanical survey conducted by Antje Burke will be fed into the database of GIS-based maps. Information collected in the entire exercise will serve as a useful baseline for future monitoring of occurrence and abundance of high-priority species in the Rössing area. Due to the sudden and extremely high demand for uranium worldwide, the time frame for the project is very tight. Recommendations must be delivered to Rössing management to inform their decisions about the expansion, by end-November 2007. The parent company of Rössing, Rio Tinto, intends to use Rössing as a pilot site for its biodiversity strategy to identify sensitive areas. |
 A student from the Polytechnic of Namibia, Richard Kavari, inspects a pit trap during the Rössing Biodiversity Assessment. Pit trapping for invertebrates and small reptiles was carried out close to the area of proposed expansion of the mine, in steep rocky habitat which is typical of the lower Khan River valley.  The Husab Sand Lizard is known only from the rocky terrain in the vicinity of the lower Khan and Swakop Rivers and the nearby Husab Mountain. |
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