SUPPLIED
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.
SUPPLIED
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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