Rio Tinto - Pre-clearing Flora Survey Report

Extensive surveys of the Gove Operations mining lease over the past 13 years by METServe have resulted in the area being one of the best-surveyed regions in eastern Arnhem Land.

These surveys have identified a number of threatened plant species, although most of these are restricted to monsoon forests and swamps away from the mining operations (Cowie and Stuckey 2008).

The only threatened plant that has been recorded to date in eucalypt woodlands within the Gove Operations mining lease is the small sub-shrub Erythroxylum pusillum. A single small, clonal population of this Endangered species is located in the north of the Gove Operations mining lease. This is the only known population of the species in the Northern Territory. See also “Monitoring Report – Erythroxulum pusilium”.