WorkSafe has this morning given the official Pike River re-entry team permission to move further up the mine’s drift.
The next step will see fresh air pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week and the team will move up the remainder of the 2.3km drift, beyond the 170m seal they reached some weeks ago.
Permission was needed from Worksafe to progress any further in the mine for safety reasons, which has been given today.
Sonya Rockhouse, re-entry campaigner and mother of one of the miners who died in the mine said this is what they’ve been working towards for the past nine years.
“At the end of the day, we’ve been saying it is safe for a long time and we’ve just had to wait for this process to go through. It’s really exciting,” said Ms Rockhouse.
“It vindicates what we’ve been saying all along.”
Ms Rockhouse said everyone has been waiting to get on with the job.
“We had no idea that it would end like this but its fantastic, all worth it. Morale is very high.”
On November 19, 2010, 29 men working in the mine died after an explosion at the West Coast site.
In that time, Ms Rockhouse said the families and re-entry campaign has faced a lot of negativity, even recently. She said those people should walk a mile in their shoes.
“A lot of people say it’s been nine years you need to move on, I wish I could move on that’s what we would like to be able to do but when somebody dies under normal circumstances you have a body and you get to grieve over that body and you get to go through the whole grieving process and we’ve got a huge chunk of that missing,” she said.
“”Imagine if it was your son or husband or brother.”
Today’s development comes after families of the Pike River victims travelled into the main drift on October 3.
Are we surprised at this? Hardly. A must read for info mainstream will never be telling you is Murder-at-Pike-River-Mine (2nd edition) by Dr Jacob Cohen. The update below is from stuff.co.nz
A group representing some of the families of men who died in the Pike River Mine say critical evidence disappeared during the initial investigation.
The cover of an electrical cabinet was blown to the surface in one of the explosions that rocked the West Coast mine, north of Greymouth, in 2010, killing 29 men.
After it was photographed, Tony Forster, a former mines chief inspector now advising the Pike River families, told TVNZ he understood it was flown by helicopter to the Pike River office. Its current whereabouts are unknown.
KIRK HARGREAVES/STUFF
Families of the Pike River miners say critical evidence has been lost during the initial investigation into the disaster.
“It blows my mind that something as significant as that, in an area that the Royal Commission centred on, has gone missing,” he said.
Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the disaster, said a lot of electrical equipment in the mine was not designed for mine conditions, and was unsafe. It was outrageous the cabinet piece had gone missing, she said.
“I don’t think any New Zealander wants to live in a country where 29 men die like this and then critical evidence disappears.”
Hi all. Here is the picture of the evidence that disappeared. It’s the cover from a switch cabinet that was in the mine and was not intrinsically safe. It was photographed on the 28th of November 2010 after it was blown up the vent shaft and landed on the ground above the mine.
We have been told that it was put on a helicopter contracted by Pike River Coal and taken to the mine office. However nobody can tell us what happened to it after that.
If we find this evidence it could determine what caused the explosion that killed 29 men. There are so many questions and there is so much to uncover. This is why we must go back into Pike River and why there needs to be a full and transparent inquiry.
Efforts are ramping up to re-enter the mine. Police said last week they would not accompany the first re-entry team due to safety concerns, but would reconsider if there was a critical find, such as human remains.
A post on the ‘Stand with Pike’ Facebook page about the missing cabinet piece said finding it could determine the cause of the explosion that killed the miners.
“There are so many questions and there is so much to uncover,” the post said.
Police Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny said she first became aware of the matter last week, and police were making enquiries.
“Police would like to hear from anyone with information which could assist us on this, or any other issue which may be relevant to the original investigation.”
Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died at Pike, said she wanted to know why the company responsible for the mine had their hands on evidence like the missing cabinet piece.
“All I can say is it’s a good thing we fought so hard for re-entry and re-investigation, because with each day it’s clear there’s more that New Zealand needs to know.”
Police still planned to complete a full forensic examination once the drift was fully recovered.
They decided in 2013 to leave the criminal investigation open until the scene could be examined. Any new evidence would be used to determine whether charges could be laid.
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