Pike River Mine

The Pike River Mine is a coal mine formerly operated by Pike River Coal north-northeast of Greymouth in the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. It is the site of the Pike River Mine disaster that occurred on 19 November 2010, leading to the deaths of 29 men whose bodies have not been recovered. The mine and assets are currently owned by the Pike River Recovery Agency, a stand-alone ministry of the Government of New Zealand, following the liquidation of Solid Energy in 2018.

It was to begin production in early 2008, and was initially expected to produce around one million tonnes of coal per year for around 20 years,Digging deep around New Zealand, ''LG - New Zealand Local Government'', Volume 44 No 5, May 2008, Page 18 making the mine the second-largest coal export mine in the country, as well as the largest underground coal mine of the country. The estimate for production was reduced to between 320,000 and 360,000 tonnes for 2011. The coal of the mine is described as "New Zealand's largest known deposit of high fluidity and quality hard coking coal" (a type of coal in high demand for iron smelting),
Coal Mine Approved for New Zealand National Park
' - 'Mines & Communities' website. Environmental News Service (ENS), Tuesday 16 March 2004. Retrieved 23 September 2007. and was expected to earn around NZ$170 million in export income annually.How the West was won: Pike River on track, ''New Zealand Construction News'', Volume 2, Issues 3, July 2007

Various setbacks occurred during late 2007 and early 2008 delaying the start of coal production. While mine operators were originally confident that production would still start in 2008 (having reached within of the coal seam in early 2008), in mid-2009 the mine was still not producing at expected levels, with the target of the first 60,000 tons of coal to be shipped having slipped to early 2010. The mine operators noted that technical difficulties with several mining machines were to blame for the delays, which also forced the company to ask for an extension from its financiers. In February 2010, the first export shipment of 20,000 tons of coal was delivered to India for use in steel production.

An explosion on Friday 19 November 2010 trapped 29 workers inside the mine. Rescuers delayed entering the mine, due to the risk of another explosion. On 24 November, a second explosion occurred and it was subsequently presumed that the workers could not have survived. A third explosion occurred at 3:39 pm 26 November; it appeared to be smaller than the first two. A fourth explosion occurred on 28 November at 1:55 pm.

Initial recovery efforts were abandoned after rescue robots were lost and after insolvency the Pike River Recovery Agency was formed and reentered the mine in May 2019. As of July 2020 the recovery team had penetrated over 1.4 km into the mine and recovered four original rescue robots previously lost.

On 17 February 2021, the Pike River Recovery Agency reported that it had reached a point 2.2 up the mine access tunnel to the site of a rockfall. This was the furthest point into the mine that the agency planned to go, and the work to this point had cost approximately $50 million. On 23 March 2021, the minister responsible for Pike River Re-entry, Andrew Little, stated that it was too hard and too expensive to go any further into the mine.

Approvals history

The mine has a development and consenting history going back to the 1970s, with the first geologists and surveyors having explored the area in the 1940s. The mine is located approximately halfway between Greymouth and Reefton, close to the Pike Stream, a tributary of the Big River in a region that already has a long history of coal- and gold-mining activity. It is located on Crown land administered by the Department of Conservation, and adjacent to the Paparoa National Park. Because of the status of the land, Pike River Coal Ltd had to obtain the Minister of Conservation's agreement to an access arrangement for mining under Section 61(2) of the Crown Minerals Act 2001.

On 12 March 2004, Minister of Conservation Chris Carter approved the access arrangement for Pike River Coal Ltd. The arrangement included four -wide emergency escape shafts within the boundaries of Paparoa National Park and a requirement for Pike River Coal Ltd to spend NZ$70,000 annually on conservation projects. Carter stated that the "safeguards and compensation" outweighed the inconsistencies with objectives of the Conservation Act 1987 and the relevant management plans.

Due to the location, the conditions of the access arrangement included special considerations for the environment, such as minimising tree felling and a requirement to reinstate all above-ground areas after the cessation of mining. Opponents of the mine strongly criticised the approval of the access agreement, noting that the coal is not intended for domestic use but simply a commercial operation, and thus should not have been allowed to go forward in a sensitive location. Forest & Bird also criticised the fact that the Minister of Conservation chose to ignore the report from the Department of Conservation stating that the mine would be damaging to the local environment. Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand also criticised the project for furthering the use of fossil fuels instead of developing sustainable alternatives.

Mine operation

In October 2008, coal production started and in November 2008, Gerry Brownlee, the Minister of Energy and Resources and Minister for Economic Development, formally opened the mine. However, production was slow initially, and took until 2009/2010 to reach significant levels.

The coal is mined underground, at above sea level, quarrying coal from the Brunner coal seam