New Zealand: Pike River mine disaster families oppose government plan to end underground investigation
Dean Dunbar in 2016 at the families’ blockade on the road to Pike River mine.
The announcement by Andrew Little, the minister in charge of the Pike River Recovery Agency (PRRA), shocked and angered many families of the 29 men who were killed when multiple explosions tore through the mine, beginning on November 19, 2010. For ten years, successive National and Labour Party governments, along with the police and the judicial system, have ensured that no PRC managers, chief executives or directors have been prosecuted for the extremely unsafe conditions in the mine.
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Pike River Recovery Agency staff open and walk through doors at the 170m seal. (Video first published December 17, 2019)
Cameras will be sent along three pipelines at the Pike River mine to look deep into the area where 29 men died. The police operation will be effectively the first unmanned reentry of the mine workings. Cameras had been put down boreholes previously, but there was limited visibility. Police confirmed they would deploy remotely-operated cameras down three pipelines leading from the West Coast mine’s access tunnel, or drift, into the mine.
NZ Police
A remotely-operated camera will be put down three 300-millimetre pipes at the Pike River mine on the West Coast.
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A piece of debris recovered from the Pike River mine drift, believed to be a piece of the mine’s main ventilation fan. A briefing to Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little, released publicly on Tuesday, says the aim of the boreholes was to get “additional information on mine infrastructure and conditions, and on the location of other evidence”. The boreholes would be drilled by contractors after the mine drift was recovered, it says. A police spokesperson said an “initial high-level feasibility study” had been done to investigate whether more boreholes were needed to support the ongoing investigation.