Recovery of bodies in Pike River mine workings 'impractical'

Wednesday, 10 June 2020

A series of explosions at the Pike River mine on the West Coast killed 29 men in 2010.

Minister Responsible for Pike River Recovery Andrew Little has said the possibility of recovering bodies during the recovery of the Pike River drift is 'very low'.

He told the Finance and Expenditure Committee that the project was focussed on finding out the cause of the disaster that killed 29 men in November 2010.

The Pike River Recovery Agency was set up by the Government in 2018 to recover the 2.3km mine access tunnel, or drift.

National MP Judith Collins asked Little 'exactly what it is we are expecting to find given that there is a tremendous amount of time and money going into this'.

Little said the Pike River Recovery Agency had spent about $35 million so far, and Government had pledged an additional $10.8m and a contigency of just over $4m.

'We're so far well within all of that. The objective of it all, given there is still an open police file, is to gather evidence that might support a prosecution. A further objective is better understanding of the cause of the disaster,' he said.

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Little said he had always maintained there was a very low probability of recovering bodies from the 2.3km drift.

The journey down the Pike River mine drift.

Little said the objective was always to recover the drift, however the families had told him they wanted all bodies recovered from the mine workings.

'They have been briefed throughout the project … and they have become aware the level of technical effort required and the health and safty risk associated with going into the mine workings, that means going beyond the roof fall at 2300m, is such that it is just impractical to do so,' he said.

There was critical equipment in an area of the drift known as Pit Bottom and Stone, which was unlikely to have been affected by the inferno in the mine workings after the explosions and could be recovered.

'We won't have the most accurate answer to what the causes were and unless we do the forensic recovery we are in no position to consider what a prosecution of whatever sort, at least under the Crimes Act, might amount to,' he said.

Little said there were no additional resources than what was already pledged.

'We are committed to getting to the end of the drift. I think we have made the best assessment of what that will require at this point. There is always a limit to these things and I have no intention of returning to Cabinet for any further resources.'