The minister says the plan underestimates the time and costs involved in recovering the mine's main ventilation fan, which would add up to $25m to the project's budget.
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The Pike River Recovery Agency team has to tunnel through a Rocsil plug to get to the top of the drift.
A risk assessment team has decided it would be too dangerous to put a camera down the compressed air line at the Pike River mine. The police put cameras down three 300-millimetre pipes in the West Coast mine in January, but were unable to penetrate beyond the roof fall due to the extent of damage to each pipe. A roof fall sits at the top of the 2.3-kilometre drift (or access tunnel), blocking access to the mine workings. The Pike River Recovery Agency has been tasked with recovering any evidence in the drift to find out what happened when 29 men died after the mine exploded in November 2010.
The Pike River Recovery Agency reached the roof fall 2.26km up the drift access tunnel. Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the mine disaster, said the end of the drift recovery process had left her with mixed emotions. “I’m incredibly proud that we have got this far and so thankful that the people of New Zealand have backed us getting this done and gathering the evidence that is crucial to getting justice for our boys. “But it’s also hard to know that this is as far as we will go and that Milt is still in there. I think every family member will be feeling that same mixture of pride and sadness,” she said.