Lightning threatens production in every industry in South Africa and the mining industry is no different, says Earthing and Lightning Protection Association (ELPA) newly appointed national director Richard Evert, urging the industry to comply with regulations to protect their assets.

Evert, who took over the helm of ELPA on June 1, says that the damage done by lightning and the concealed nature of the transfer of electricity and charge should not be underestimated.

“Insurance companies bear the brunt of the asset and property losses and families bear the brunt of human losses. It is ELPA’s goal to oversee the reduction in fatalities and loss of property in South Africa.”

Evert notes that the mining industry needs early warning systems and lightning protection systems particular to this industry. He says the threat is threefold: human safety, property and assets damage and false triggering of prime explosives.

“Human safety takes the highest priority and people are at risk from both lightning strikes and falsely triggered explosions. The mining management stands at the head of the field to do the right thing and comply with regulations to protect their assets. Lightning risk assessments will dictate whether mining management needs to do anything, and ELPA will assist in differentiating between essential and wasteful expenditure.

“When considered, the statistics will speak for themselves. Mining deaths and damage to mining assets should be the key reason why no mining house in South Africa will neglect lightning protection in any part of their production and engineering processes,” Evert states.

He adds that it is important to facilitate relationships between the industry’s service providers and end-users, as well as advance lightning risk knowledge in communities, developing skills through tertiary education institutions, escalating continental support infrastructure and building weather tracking capacity.

“Lightning protection technology and its installation is a specialised discipline, and we will endeavour to build ELPA towards a national all-encompassing body for South Africans.”

Evert served Eskom for 28 years in the capacity of senior research consulting engineer and specialised in power system lightning performance management over the last 13 years.