An update will be provided today on how feasible it is to re-enter the Pike River Mine.
Photo: AFP
Explosions at the West Coast underground coal mine in November 2010 killed 29 men, and seven years later a plan is being formulated to recover their bodies.
Thirty one experts have been meeting just outside Greymouth for the past three days trying to nut out how a manned re-entry of the 2.3 kilometre long entry tunnel could be done safely.
They include a who's who of the mining sector covering geotechnical engineering, mine ventilation and health and safety.
A spokesperson for the agency set up to oversee the effort, the Pike River Recovery Agency, said a final plan would be presented to the minister in charge, Andrew Little, in June or July.
Key moments in the mine tragedy:
- 19 November 2010 - The first methane gas explosion hits at about 3.45pm, leaving 29 men trapped. Only two men walk out
- 24 November 2010 - The second explosion hits at 2.37pm. Police move from rescue to recovery operations
- 29 November 2010 - Cabinet agrees to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry
- 13 December 2010 - Pike River Coal is placed into receivership
- 10 November 2011 - The Labour Department lays 25 charges against Pike River Coal, Valley Longwall International Drilling and former Pike River Coal CEO Peter Whittall under the Health and Safety in Employment Act
- July 2012 - The sale of Pike River Coal to Solid Energy is confirmed
- 5 November 2012 - The Royal Commission into the Pike River Mine Tragedy makes its report and recommendations public
- 23 October 2013 - The Defence Force completes the first phase of the mine tunnel re-entry plan
- 15 November 2013 - Legislation implementing health and safety recommendations passes its third reading in Parliament
- 12 December 2013 - Charges against former Pike River Coal CEO Peter Whittall are dropped
- 24 December 2013 - Payments begin from a special compensation fund set up after Mr Whittall's charges were dropped
- 4 February 2014 - Second phase of work to re-enter mine tunnel begins
- 6 November 2014 - Solid Energy announces it will not re-enter the Pike River Mine drift because the company considers the risks to life remain too high.
- 12 November 2016 - Pike River family members Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse stage a sit-in at the Pike River mine access road in protest at the Government's refusal to enter part of the mine.
- 14 December 2016 - Pike River family members present an experts report they have commissioned which says a manned re-entry of the main entry tunnel to the mine is possible
- 20 November 2017 - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a Government Department for Pike River with a timeline for re-entering the mine by 2019