Pike River mine workers reach seal at the top of the mine drift

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

Pike River Recovery Agency workers have reached a Rocsil plug at the top of the mine's access tunnel.

Pike River mine workers have reached a seal near the end of the mine’s access tunnel, their final milestone in the recovery operation for 2020.

The Pike River Recovery Agency has been tasked by the Government to reclaim the 2.3km tunnel, or drift, in the hope of finding bodies and evidence to what caused the explosions that killed 29 men in 2010.

Chief operating officer Dinghy Pattinson said mine workers had reached the Rocsil plug, a ventilation plug near the end of the drift, at 8pm on Tuesday, 349 days after dismantling the 170m barrier.

* Pike River recovery achievable 'on time and on budget'

Geotechnical engineer Rick Lee, mine worker Luke Taylor, chief operating officer Dinghy Pattinson, mine manager / health and safety manager Greg Duncan and mine maintenance planner Liam Collins at the Rocsil Plug on Wednesday.

* Pike River Recovery Agency goes beyond mine's 170m seal

The plug, made from a concrete-like resin which can be sprayed and hardens to form a seal, was installed in early November 2019 to allow the drift to be recovered in fresh air.

The journey down the Pike River mine drift.

“We’ve now achieved another milestone – reaching the Rocsil plug around 2244m up the Pike River Mine drift. This is as far as we go this year,” he said.

The agency is closing down for Christmas on Wednesday and will restart on January 5.

The team will then complete final forensic work around the plug area and instal a ventilation control device – effectively a wall with airlock doors.

The steel and sprayed concrete structure had machine doors and a doorway and will be put in about 2224m up the drift in front of the Rocsil plug.

Once the device is in place, mine workers will wear long duration breathing apparatus to get through the airlock door and tunnel 10m through the plug.

They will then examine the final 8m to the roof fall, which blocks the mine workings, carrying out forensic searches to help the police investigation.

The team will then return to complete a forensic search and recovery operation in an area called pit bottom in stone.

Pit bottom in stone is a 600m network of roadways about 1900m up the drift that holds vital electrical equipment which could provide data to explain the cause of the explosions.