Human remains, destruction seen on 'crystal clear' images from Pike River boreholes

Thursday, 18 November 2021

Carol and Steve Rose talk about the loss of their son Stu Mudge, and their journey in the 10 years since the Pike River Mine disaster

New technology has captured “crystal clear” footage from deep inside the Pike River mine.

It is this technology that has allowed police, more than a decade after the Pike River mine explosion that killed 29 men, to detect the remains of at least two, possibly three, of the men.

The images were taken late last week from a new borehole in the area furthest away from what had then been the entrance to the mine. Police have said the images would not be released publicly out of respect to the families.

Pike River widow Anna Osborne said police showed the families some “crystal clear” images at a meeting in Greymouth on Wednesday night.

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Flames burn from a ventilation shaft above the Pike River mine after the November 2010 explosion that killed 29 men.

“We haven't seen the remains but what they showed us was different places in the mine. The clarity I saw was amazing.”

According to the Royal Commission held after the disaster, eight men – Glenn Cruse, Christopher Duggan, Daniel Herk, Richard Holling, Brendon Palmer, Stuart Mudge, William Joynson and Peter Rodger – were in that area when the mine exploded at 3.45pm on November 19, 2010.

This map depicts the last known position of the 29 men who died and two who survived in the Pike River Mine disaster.

They were using an alpine bolter miner, which is a type of continuous miner that allows simultaneous cutting rock and coal, bolting and roof support, to bore out a new roadway in the north-west extremity of the mine.

On the day of the disaster, they reached the face at 2pm but were waiting for mining to restart after another crew’s machine tripped out when methane levels spiked in the mine.

Police have seen two bodies in footage taken on cameras lowered into the Pike River mine. (First published November 17, 2021. Footage from another borehole has since shown the apparent remains of another two or three men).

Twenty seconds before the explosion, Duggan’s brother Dan tried to contact the team to tell them mining could resume.

At a media briefing on Wednesday, two days before the 11th anniversary of the explosion, Superintendent Pete Read said it was not possible to recover the remains due to their location.

Osborne said the boreholes were put in areas of interest including the areas suggested by the Royal Commission as possible sites for the first explosion.

She said the images shown by police revealed up to 40m of the mine’s roadways illuminated by the lighting on the specialist camera, which is safe for use in underground mines.

“We could see quite a bit of destruction, wires hanging down, tubes down, bolts and mesh, rock falls and coal falls. I always picture the mine as a dark place, but it looked like daylight down there with the lighting,” she said.

She said the boreholes were between 100mm and 150mm in diameter and 100m deep. The camera was on a long pole, a bit wider than a broom handle, which could rotate 360 degrees.

Superintendent Pete Read says due to the location, it is not possible to recover the remains deep in the Pike River mine.

Osborne said the family reference group requested the police drill the boreholes when the Government refused to pay for a manned recovery of the mine workings, saying the risks would be too high.

“We wanted the police to have as much information as possible for their investigation. We knew if they could get footage from inside the mine they might be able to piece together what happened that day,” she said.

The police agreed to fund six new boreholes at a cost of $3m in a bid to look deep inside the mine, which began in June.

A map of the Pike River mine from the royal commission which shows the development areas where the bodies have been found

Osborne said the police investigation was only reopened because families had fought and achieved re-entry of the drift with the help of the $50m Government-funded Pike River Recovery Agency.

The ultimate aim now was for police to have enough evidence to lay criminal charges, she said.

The 29 Pike River miners who were killed in the disaster.

“I am hoping a prosecution will come of it. I’m so grateful to the police for doing a fantastic job working for the families.”

There are 12 staff working full-time on the Pike River investigation, as well as an expert panel and imaging staff.

Read said the images were a “stark reminder of the pain and the loss” but also added to a picture being investigated that would hopefully provide some answers to the families.

Precision drilling equipment on commercial drilling rigs were used to drill the holes through the mountainous terrain. The terrain next to the Hawera Fault includes a monolithic slab of sandstone up to 70m thick.

“Once the holes have been drilled, high-definition video and 3D scanning equipment is deployed into the hole to show the conditions in the mine area near the boreholes,” Read said.

Bespoke, purpose-built imaging equipment was being used, and all images were reviewed by a panel of international mining experts.

He said the police had drilled six boreholes so far, and work would continue on site until the end of the year.

Read said police were working with forensic investigators on how the identities of the remains could be determined.

The drift recovery and the images had been “extremely helpful” in providing new information for its criminal investigation, he said.

“The quality of the imagery is really, really good compared to what we had before, so that is assisting us…. We were lucky if we could see four or five metres. This technology is allowing us up to 40 or 50 metres. We have got exceptional images. Better than the international experts we are dealing with have ever seen before,” he said.

The mine has been sealed and will be handed over to the Department of Conservation once the police investigation is complete.