The Labour Party-led government is racing to shut down the underground investigation of Pike River coal mine. It aims to prevent the recovery of evidence that could lead to prosecutions of those responsible for the disaster which killed 29 workers in November 2010.
The Pike River Recovery Agency (PRRA), which has only explored the mine’s drift or entry tunnel, intends to pull workers and equipment out and start sealing the mine this week.
Nobody from Pike River Coal Ltd. has been prosecuted for the company’s egregious violations of workplace safety legislation, including grossly inadequate ventilation, which allowed methane gas to reach explosive levels. A 2012 royal commission of inquiry established that the company placed production ahead of workers’ safety and ignored numerous warnings of a catastrophe.
West Coast · The feasibility study for manned reentry to the fan space at Pike River is complete. It’s release will happen very soon. This work has been carried out at zero cost to the New Zealand taxpayer by a group of eminent international mining experts. Everyone in this country owes those selfless men a debt of gratitude for the massive effort entailed in its creation. It’s incredibly important that the public understand that police proposal to use bore holes to look within the mine has two fatal flaws.
1: Boreholes are a very poor tool for forensic examination. You can take photos, but only from a single point of view. You can view objects, but you can’t take samples – nor can you turn things over, dismantle them or move things out of the way. You can’t see inside things or behind things.
2: The police say they are looking for evidence – but there is a good chance that they will just bury it instead. Drilling holes into the roof of a tunnel that has already been weakened by explosions creates the risk that the roof will collapse. That’s exactly what has happened at borehole 50 (pictured below) – a borehole that’s only metres away. If the roof collapses then the coverup at Pike River is complete.
We have presented the police with two options for getting access to the fan space, horizontal drilling from within the drift and manned reentry, that do not carry the risk of roof collapse. They have chosen to ignore our proposals. Now one of those proposals has been comprehensively studied. Here’s a couple of photos of what Police and others have persisted in describing as “a massive rockfall”.
Three things we can say about it – it’s not massive, we can see no rock and there is a void, metres high, above a large chunk of it. If you want the truth read the report. If you’ve already sold your soul over this then step aside and let us get on with it.
“So while everyone thought they were gathering concrete evidence, they were, in fact, covering the evidence in concrete.”
An engineer investigating the Pike River mine disaster has claimed a mine manager pumped tonnes of concrete into a vital air feed, likely where the miners gathered after the first explosion, “completely obliterating” evidence.
Thursday marked the 10th anniversary of the 2010 coal mining accident on the West Coast which claimed the lives of 29 men.
RELATED ARTICLE BY Dr Jacob Cohen (pdf): Murder at Pike River Mine _______________________________________________________________________
Electrical engineer Richard Healey, who spent two years helping the families investigate, appeared on Newshub Nation on Saturday claiming 350 cubic tonnes of concrete was poured into the mine.
“We have the invoices for the material, 105 tonnes shipped from Australia in seven shipping containers. We have eyewitness testimony from people who put material down the shaft, the process took three days. We know that the contract which was signed to do that specified that 350 cubic metres of material would be used.”
What a heart breaking story this is. The angst of the families, their loved ones so near yet so very far. Now they plan to seal the mine off. When this story was initially over and we knew there was no hope they would ever emerge from the mine alive, and when reporters began to dig below the surface, so the shocking facts began to emerge. The miners’ working environment had been unsafe for some time. For a thorough exposé of the truth of this whole affair, download and read ‘Murder at Pike River Mine’ by Dr Jacob Cohen. You will not of course find this information in mainstream news. Are you joining any dots?
“The incestuous collusion between corrupt fascist, international corporations, banks, global mining companies and compliant politicians – and how the inexorable love of money by those who run them supersedes everything else”
“What was the real truth behind the Pike River coal mine disaster in NZ killing 29 men? Was the tragedy simply an ‘accident’ or was it premeditated murder? Involving people at the highest level of the NZ Government and international business and banking community? Does this case have implications for the world?” Dr Jacob Cohen
Below is a video from March 2018 at thisweek.org.uk featuring an interview with Dr Jacob Cohen on topic. It begins with a similar (brief) scenario in Manchester where firefighters (as with Pike River) were forbidden to go to the rescue of possible survivors:
EMERGENCY RESPONDERS CRIMINALLY PREVENTED FROM DOING THEIR JOBS, SO PEOPLE DIE UNNECESSARILY Manchester attack: Firefighters did not respond to bombing for two hours because of false alarm over ‘active shooter’.
Dr Jacob Cohen discusses the Pike River Mine explosion in New Zealand in 2010 where 29 men died – insurance job.
Jacob’s book: Murder at Pike River Mine, 2nd edition Jacob Cohen, Tony Gosling, Martin Summers http://www.thisweek.org.uk – 30 March 2018
Pike River mine survivor: ‘there are people in that mine that survived, just like I did’
Nov 14, 2016
“I think they’ve just tried to ease us into it by delaying it and pushing it back and back year after year. They’re just kicking us in the guts once more.”
There is no doubt in Daniel Rockhouse’s mind that he and Russell Smith were not the only two who survived the first Pike River mine explosion.
Rockhouse made his way out of the mine after a methane blast on November 19, 2010, dragging Smith with him.
The friends were the only two men who came out alive after the explosion ripped through the West Coast coal mine, leaving 29 trapped inside – where they remain today.
He calls Solid Energy’s plans to permanently plug the mine with concrete “disgusting”.
Rockhouse said the fight for answers had been traumatising, stressful and emotional – to the point where he had stepped away. But his mother continued to battle.
He had faced 12 health and safety charges relating to the deaths of 29 men after a series of explosions at the West Coast coal mine five years ago.
Peter Whittall Photo: AFP (Radio NZ)
The prosecution was dropped after an insurance payment of more than $3 million was made to the families of the men who died.
Two women who lost family members in the disaster had asked the court to review the decision by Worksafe New Zealand not to offer any evidence on the charges.
Anna Osborne, whose husband was killed in the mine blast, and Sonya Rockhouse, whose son died, were assisted in their legal bid by the Council of Trade Unions (CTU). READ MORE
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