4. Upper Mundic Gully Environmental Value Description
4.1
Upper Mundic Gully Location and Catchment Description
The Upper Mundic Gully area within the Mount Morgan Mine is a highly modified landform that has been subjected to previous waste rock and limited tailings disposal. The topography of the Mount Morgan Mine has been significantly modified through previous mining activities through the creation of the OCP, placement of overburden in dumps and deposition of latent tailings into natural gullies. Whilst originally an underground mining operation, during the 1930s-1950 the mining methodology changed to open cut methods. This activity significantly influenced site topography and associated hydrological drainage patterns across the entire site. Figure 10 displays a photograph taken in 1942, viewed from the west looking to the east showing the waste rock material placed in the Upper Mundic Gully area. The source of this material was the OCP as the mine was transitioning from underground to open cut operations. Figure 11 shows the placement of this waste rock material from a plan view. The waste rock placed to the west of the OCP, referred to as the Western Dump, acts as a semi-permeable barrier which has artificially created a valley within what should be the headwaters of the Upper Mundic Creek. Currently water pools in an ephemeral waterbody at the lowest topographical point of the Upper Mundic Gully and a stormwater diversion tunnel, that was excavated to the northeast of the Upper Mundic Gully area in the early 1980s, diverts the ponded water to Dam 8 located to the north east.
Project number: 25B061
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