The Pike River Coal mine company took 51 minutes to contact emergency services and initially had no idea how many men were inside when a series of explosions tore through the West Coast mine, killing 29 men, it was reported today.
The Pike River contractors and suppliers group has revealed the information in the lead up to next month's Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster, which ripped apart the West Coast community on November 19 last year.
The men's bodies are still entombed in the mine.
The contractors are owed $5 million by Pike River Coal and will file court action this week to have the company wound up.
They said the company took 51 minutes to contact emergency services and initially had no idea how many men were in the mine, Radio New Zealand reported today.
The group's spokesman Gerry Morris told the broadcaster gaps in records resulted in some of the men's families not being contacted until 14 hours after the first blast.
He also said Mines Rescue was denied entry to the mine but did send a bucket with torches and a radio in the hours after the first explosion.
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn confirmed to Radio NZ it took nearly an hour to contact emergency services but it was understandable the company did not know how many men were still in the mine as some tags at the entrance to the mine had not been replaced from previous shifts.
Mr Morris said the chance to rescue the men immediately after the blast was missed because of "command and control hesitancy" of both the police and Department of Labour. Police were out of their depth in managing the rescue, he said.
New Zealand would be a laughing stock in the world of underground mining and would go down as a case study of how not to conduct a rescue, Mr Morris said.
The policeman in charge of the rescue and recovery operation, Superintendent Gary Knowles, would not respond to the comments.
However, in a statement to Radio NZ, police said the information was not new and it was unfortunate the comments were being made before the commission started hearing evidence.
It was totally inappropriate for people to make such comments beforehand, the statement said.
"Police categorically reject criticism of the emergency services' response contained in the reported comments. The decisions made at the time were based on input from a range of experts and the need for safety."
Police were confident all the issues would be investigated by the inquiry.
Pike River Coal's former chief executive Peter Whittall, in a limited reaction, said he was not aware Mines Rescue had asked to enter the mine.
The contractors' revelations come after Prime Minister John Key admitted to an Australian newspaper this week that the Pike River mine would have been illegal by Australian standards.
Mr Key previously said he had he had no reason to doubt New Zealand's standards.
Although Mr Key told the newspaper he was not in a position to "give a full response" on mining safety until after the inquiry, he said "we do have to ask the question" about safety standards.
