I hope our Kiwi mates aren't involved or have family down there. Hope everything goes well.

Yes, Bakes,
Reports so far do not sound good - let's hope/pray for a miracle.

- Paul

unfortunatley another gas explosion occurred in the mine this morning , and now officially all hope of rescueing trapped men is lost.

Its unknown at present when an attempt may be made to recover the bodies of those trapped but it wont be until it is safe to enter the mine.

Mining is a dangerous occupation , unfortunately so in this instance.

I was over Greymouth way with Shanks in May this year and was informed that the Sth Island was the only coal burning island after I commented on the smoke aromas...not knowing of course that this was going to unfold and after seeing the latest tv news a while ago tonight it seems all is lost,tough men those underground boys ,I doffs me lid to them.RIP

Yeah I heard about the second explosion this afternoon. A sad day for the whole town.

RIP

tough time for the families , & the mines rescue guys still have a terribly risky job in the recovery attempt.

sure hope we don't lose any of the mine rescue guys during the recovery operation. Some of them are from the NSW unit based in my hometown.

I just found out one of my old work mates ( Terry Kitchen)is among the dead , I worked with him for a couple of years in the 90s. Bugger!!

As someone who comes from a coal mining family, my heart goes out to the families and friends of those involved..

Given the circumstances it may be the best case to let the bodies rest in peace and place a suitable monument at the pit head..

Of course thats assuming they have no intention of re openning the mine commercially..

There was a third explosion yesterday, a week (almost to the minute) after the first.
They have a fogging engine almost on site that will 'make safe' so recovery can go ahead. The fogging machine is a jet engine that blows steam into the mine entrance that forces the methane and co2 to evacuate up the ventilater shafts. It aparently reduces the oxygen levels to about 2% so risk of further explosions is reduced. The third robot sent from Australia has been in about 1500m and the destruction is worse than they thought. Tough days already and more to come for this area.

Von Gruff.

They are in my thoughts & prayers. CB

Terrible!
I've spent several months underground mining back some yrs, not for coal though.

Since this last post was a month ago. What about an update? Seems appropiate to post the later news and findings.

Thank you, and RIP to those involved.
George

The news is not good. The dead miners are unrecovered, still in the mine due to the fire that raged which has finally been put out with the help of an AU mine equipment lend. A new machine arrived yesterday that is to pump nitrogen into the mine to further reduce the oxygen availability (that might promote further explosions) and allow recovery of the bodies. The mine has gone into recievership and the surviving men all layed off.
Some very distressed families on the coast through this Christmas time.

Von Gruff.

Thank you for the update.
This hasn't made the local papers here.

Am very sorry to hear it's all bad news.
Hopefully they'll be recovered before long.
The season doesn't really make much difference when it come's right down to the seriousness like this news.
George