NZ Mining Blast Investigation Heats Up

NZ Mining Blast Investigation Heats Up

29 workers at a coal mine in New Zealand was killed in an explosion last year, in what is now considered to be  the country's worst mine disaster in decades. According to an energy executive who testified in an inquiry last Monday, the explosion may have been brought about by the overextending of the mining operations by the company, who is suffering from financial pressures.

Contact Energy chief executive, Don Elder further noted that Pike River Coal Ltd. is facing financial pressures because the said company doesn't have any other mines to cover for the expenses they generate.  Shortly after the accident, the Pike River company filed for bankruptcy and is now attempting to sell the mine and its assets.

The investigation was made to find out whether there are any problems with the enforced safety procedures or rescue operations in the methane-fueled explosions at the Pike River mine last November.

Recovering the rest of the bodies from the mine is taking a lot of time. Work crews started to re-enter the mine two weeks ago and are slowly inching their way down, they are carefully setting up air seals and extracting dangerous gasses.

According to Elder, Pike River Coal Ltd. has mining methods that require highly  trained specialists to execute, this may have been one of the factors resulting to the explosion. His company, Contact Energy was also under scrutiny for failing health and safety standards.

Many of the grieving families were present during the inquiry hoping to give justice to their death of their loved ones, but this would seem to take time as the investigation is set out to be done in four stages that could last eight more months. The background and fact finding was already done earlier this year, but 12 mine and energy experts are still scheduled to speak to cover the first phase of the inquiry.

Posted by James Fried on Tuesday July 12 2011, 6:03 AM EST. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0