Pike River recovery
January 28th, 2012 at 3:08 pm by David FarrarMichael Daly at Stuff reports:
Recovery of the bodies of the men killed in the Pike River Coal mine disaster is not expected to be completed for at least 3 1/2 years, a new independent report says.
The estimates in the draft independent review by engineer Bruce McLean depend on a successful sale of the mine.
Even with a sale, the report does not expect recovery of the bodies until some time between July 2015 and June 2017.
That timetable depends on the completion of a new shaft or tunnel to establish a ventilation circuit by June 2014.
This report or review was commissioned by the families of the dead miners. While the conclusions are probably not the ones they hoped for, it is good they agree with the advice from the receivers and the Government that one can’t just rush in them in a matter of weeks or months.
The fact the Government won’t consent to a transfer of the license unless the new owner agrees to do best efforts to recover the bodies means that eventually they will recover the bodies or remains, I believe. It will be important closure for the families.
Related posts:
- Pike River sold
- No recovery for Pike
- Pike River likely to be sealed
- Solid Energy bidding for Pike River
January 28th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Why the hell won’t Joyce do a deal with the receivers, all he needs to do is knock the top off the hill dig to 7 billion dollars of coal through solid energy and retrieve the bodies. The mine is in the middle of nowhere and when they have finished create a lake and nature reserve.
Vote:We could top up the Cullen fund, retrieve the bodies, create a great reserve but the problem is our poll driven PM who seems to thing Robyn Malcolm represents the majority view. He needs to remind himself of why he survived and got to the top in the worlds most cutthroat business, trust me my cousin retired at thirty working in Japan as a currency dealer so I know what it takes. Trust his gut and leave a legacy.
January 28th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Their ain’t many remains in a crematorium. Just saying.
Vote:January 28th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
As soon as we moved the excavators in Penny et al would camp on top of the site and the wishy washy government wankers don’t have a policy to apply re human compost.
I suggest, “dig them in” would seem a good place to start if anyone wishes to start writing such legislation.
Perhaps Maggie Barry could be put in charge of proceeding the policy?
Vote:January 28th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
Who would notice a few protesters amongst millions of tonnes of coal? NZ will never ever catch up with Australia while these scumbags hold up progress. HTFU
Vote:Dig baby dig
January 28th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Bodies are lost at sea every day, this closure thing is just a new gobble de gook.
Honestly there won’t be much to find 2017 and in reality there might be nothing left already.
The cynic in me says the “family spokesman” who just happens to be unioned up to his arse will keep this bleeding out slowly meaning the families wil never move on.
Vote:January 28th, 2012 at 7:35 pm
ah two cynics then. You are catching up PEB.A couple more years and I will have you trained.
Vote:January 28th, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Jeez…. talk about **piss-arsing around**. What about recovery using robots?
Vote:The families should be given a choice. Either a recovery now (using robots), or a recovery in a few years, using people.
I find it very difficult to believe that it isn’t possible to whack together a robot that is capable of recovering a body in a mine. FFS – surely all you need is a front-end loader? Yes, it is possible that during the process, er, “bits” might drop off the bodies, but do you really want to wait for another few years?
F**k – I wonder if the Chch City Council is involved in the glacial progress of events in this “recovery”?
January 28th, 2012 at 8:12 pm
Pike River – a tragedy
Royal Commission a necessity
we all know these people are dead, constant media not needed
Whilst feeling for the families we need to move on, the media are prolonging the agont
In fact families are hindering issue
Vote:January 29th, 2012 at 12:22 am
Robots – no such thing possible. As far as opencasting goes the cost would outweigh benefits, the coal is not as valuable as claimed – read the Royal Commission transcripts, I would not be surprised if NZOG get court action against them from some of their investors as there appears to have been misrepresentation of the quality of the coal produced. Complete cowboys.
How do you make a robot that can negotiate all types of terrain possible and carry the massive amount of cable needed to travel 3 km underground etc, just not feasible at present. At least at Deepwater, the ROVs have the advantage of being in water, no tunnels or anything or the possibility of explosions.
Vote:January 29th, 2012 at 12:24 am
Who wants to dig through the hill, great way to restart the fire.
Vote:January 29th, 2012 at 1:48 am
I’m reading American Ground – Unbuilding the World Trade Center (http://www.amazon.com/American-Ground-Unbuilding-World-Center/dp/0865475822)… It describes a situation involving finding fire fighter’s bodies that seems quite similar to the recover-at-any-cost situation that we see at Pike River. The fire fighters obviously suffered a loss but let it become pathological with a mix of comradeship, unionism, Irish ethnicity, and publicly proclaimed heroism. There was in excess of 1.2 million tonnes of debris and for it to be cleared in a finite amount of time required serious engineering equipment combined with body-part detection off site. This seems to have offended many fire fighters who believed that only fire fighters should search for dead fire fighters, that the only respectful way to do this was by hand at the site, and that bodies of fire fighters should be placed in flag draped coffins when found while civilians could be loaded in to body bags.
It also manifested itself in an inability to recognise shortcomings in their own performance. A fire engine was dug out of the rubble that was full of new blue jeans that had been looted from a WTC shop before one of the towers had collapsed. Rather than face up to the fact that some of their colleagues had looted a building that was on fire while people were trying to escape, the fire department invented a scenario where the jeans had blown in to the engine and then miraculously folded themselves neatly. And then fire fighters at the recovery site decided an even better response was to fight the police.
They’re dead bodies. The previous owners have no use for them. Move on!
Vote:January 29th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10781985
Amazing, fucking amazing!
Vote:January 31st, 2012 at 9:21 am
One solution (the National Party might like) is sell Pike to the Chinese and bring in Chinese miners; they will get the bodies out.
Vote: