The Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) reports a court outcome in favour of the state’s resources regulator will help ensure safety among workers at open-cut mines during severe lightning storms.
RSHQ reports the industrial court found that the safety of workers operating heavy mobile equipment (HME) during nearby lighting events may reach an unacceptable level of risk resulting in an injury or death. As such, the court concluded when lightning strikes are occurring within 16km, HME with nitrogen filled tyres must be safely parked up and workers should stay in the vehicles until lightning has abated.
The court outcome follows RSHQ’s Chief Inspector of Coal Mines Jacques le Roux issuing a directive in October 2023 to stop a major mine from operating when lightning strikes nearby.
RSHQ issued a safety alert which confirmed it was not safe for mine workers to operate heavy mobile equipment such as bulldozers and dump trucks, during nearby lightning storms.
A BMA coal mine has been operating heavy vehicles when lightning strikes were less than 16km away, because it argued tyres filled with 95% nitrogen prevented the tyres from exploding if struck.
RSHQ’s le Roux says other factors associated with lightning events still present an unacceptable level of risk to workers.
“Lightning can strike equipment or the ground directly, cause tyre explosions in vehicles with air-filled tyres or travel through conductive parts of vehicles and buildings, electrocuting workers,” he says.
The most recent lighting event causing injury in Australia occurred in Western Australia in January 2025, where six workers needed medical treatment after a lightning strike caused a tyre explosion in a dump truck.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
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