Pike River

The operation at the Pike River Coal mine has already cost police almost $11 million.

The New Zealand government will donate $3.5 million towards a new events centre in Greymouth to pay tribute to the 29 men who died in the Pike River Coal tragedy in November.

A contracting company owed $58 000 by Pike River Coal has gone into receivership.

Pike River receiver John Fisk says nine Pike River Coal executives were informed this week that they have been laid off.

Unsecured former contractors at the Pike River Coal mine in New Zealand want to liquidate the company, saying it will give them the best chances of getting repaid quickly and provide a better chance the bodies of the miners killed in the tragedy will be recovered.

The New Zealand government says it will not be funding the participation of receivers in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the tragedy that killed 29 men.

The preliminary hearing of the Royal Commission of Inquiry held yesterday was filled with emotion, including tears and a minute’s silence for the 29 lost men.

A resident of New Zealand’s West Coast and former coal mining journalist has provided some interesting thoughts on the November incident that killed 29 men and the subsequent Royal Commission of Inquiry into the tragedy.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the deaths of 29 men inside the Pike River Coal mine will begin with a minute’s silence today.

The Pike River Coal mine, where 29 men perished in November, will formally be put on the market next week.

The two men who escaped the Pike River Coal disaster say there was a window of time when rescuers could have entered the mine and possibly retrieved the 29 men inside.

Families of the Pike River Coal victims say the receivers are more concerned with selling the mine than recovering the bodies of those killed in the disaster.

Solid Energy’s bid for the devastated Pike River Coal mine has come with a warning from the company that is prepared to spend up to $100 million drawing up plans for the project and it could cost hundreds of millions more to mine.

The people of Greymouth are “tickled pink”, according to Mayor Tony Kokshoorn, about the impending visit of Prince William.

Pike River Coal receivers have announced they have resumed control of the mine stabilisation at the underground mine where 29 men were killed in November.

The sister of one of the Pike River mine victims has questioned why the families were given hope of a rescue following the first explosion, after an inquest yesterday found they would have died within minutes.

Death certificates will be issued to the families of the Pike River underground coal victims, following an inquest into the tragedy today.

The Pike River inquest has been told that the 29 workers most likely died within three to five minutes of the initial explosion inside the mine.

Twenty people have been killed and a further six injured following a mine explosion in north east Colombia.

The inquest into the explosions that killed 29 men inside the Pike River coal mine will begin today.