Stuff Digital Edition

New boreholes aim to find cause of mine disaster

Joanne Naish and Fran Chin

Police will drill 10 new boreholes into the Pike River mine in a bid to find ‘‘a definitive conclusion’’ for what caused the first explosion.

Some families hope the move will bring them one step closer to justice as the police criminal investigation continues into the 2010 disaster that killed 29 men.

Police previously put cameras down nine boreholes following the $50 million Government-funded reentry of the West Coast mine’s access tunnel, or drift. The remains of eight men were found in the images taken through the boreholes.

The mine site was handed over to the Department of Conservation (DOC), which is building a memorial walk.

The ignition source of the explosion has never been confirmed, but police have drilled a borehole into the area containing the main ventilation fan – which the royal commission into the disaster said should never have been placed underground – to investigate whether it was the source.

Over the last four months, the police investigation team and an expert mine panel had been reviewing the evidence gathered to date, Detective Superintendent Peter Read said. They had found that more borehole drilling was ‘‘imperative’’ to ensure the investigation team had all the information it needed ‘‘to reach a definitive conclusion’’.

Read said families were informed on Wednesday. Those he had spoken to were surprised by the decision but grateful for the opportunity it offered in terms of gathering evidence, he said.

‘‘The families of the 29 men lost at the mine have been waiting a long time for answers, and I’m very aware that in some respects, this additional drilling operation could be seen as prolonging that wait.

‘‘However, I hope the decision also provides some reassurance to the families that police remain absolutely committed to finding out as much as humanly possible about what led to the first explosion at the mine,’’ Read said.

There had been preliminary conversations with DOC, and police were working through a formal consent process for the drilling, he said.

Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the mine, welcomed the news.

‘‘Seven years ago, we were being told that all that could be done had been done and that we should walk away. We didn’t ... and now we are getting closer to justice.’’

Sonya Rockhouse, whose son Ben died in the mine, said the families were fighting for accountability.

‘‘The police have worked tirelessly on this investigation for several years now, and we can only thank them for their commitment to justice and to truth.’’

Rowdy Durbridge, whose son Dan was killed, said the more that was seen from the mine, the better.

‘‘It’s going to take time, but we’re used to that after all these years.’’

Read said that while the original borehole programme provided a lot of answers to vital questions, there were still ‘‘gaps in information’’.

The 10 new boreholes would allow evidence to be gathered on the size and reach of the explosion, the fuel and how it got from where it originated, the debris, and the direction of the blasts.

The mine’s ventilation fan would also be looked at this time, he said.

‘‘We may not find the answers we want through the boreholes, but

Detective Superintendent

we’re not going to leave it without trying.’’

The new boreholes would be centred around the mine’s intake and return headings and the crosscuts that went between them, Read said. The locations were chosen based on advice given by ‘‘experts’’, who would remain unnamed so they could make their decisions without undue pressure.

Asked why this drilling was not done earlier, Read said police ‘‘ran out of time’’. Now that the mine was closed, there was nothing stopping them from going back.

Read said he could not divulge how much the new drilling operation would cost, as contracts were being negotiated, or how long it would take. A start date had not been set either, but he hoped it would be this year.

Regarding a potential criminal prosecution, Read said police had been in contact with a Christchurch Crown solicitor but had not asked for a confirmed legal opinion.

‘‘We can’t rule a prosecution out. In saying that, if we don’t get to a prosecution, we want to have given it our best shot and answered every question we possibly could.’’

Other streams of investigation would not finish until May, he said, including computer modelling of the explosion, which police were working on with universities overseas.

Read said he expected that police would see human remains through the new boreholes.

None of the remains seen in earlier images had been identified, which the families accepted, he said.

Many had seen the footage or had been offered the opportunity to look. ‘‘We’ve taken those as far as we can,’’ Read said.

‘‘Police remain absolutely committed to finding out as much as humanly possible.’’ Peter Read

News

en-nz

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281767043104539

Stuff Limited