Police have confirmed that the search for 56-year-old Murray Taylor, an owner of Heathstock Haulage, is now a recovery operation.
A 25-strong team led by police is continuing the operation today, after the incident about 10.40am yesterday at the Heathstock Haulage quarry on Limeworks Rd in Waikari.
A cliff-face collapsed with huge rocks, some weighing as much as 15 tonne, landing on Mr Taylor's 65-tonne digger.
Mr Taylor, a life-long North Canterbury man, lived at nearby Balcairn with his wife Jill.
His family paid tribute to him today as a much-loved husband, father, son, brother, uncle and friend. In a statement, they said Mr Taylor "left for work as usual yesterday to do a job he thoroughly enjoyed".
A Waikari local, who didn't wish to be named, said Mr Taylor was a "decent, hard-working bloke".
"He's going to be very well missed in the community,'' she said. "A very respected man, and was always helping others wherever he could."
When the local service station burned to the ground in 1996, Mr Taylor brought a digger to help with the recovery.
"That was the sort of guy he was."
Inspector Corrie Parnell, of Canterbury, said a geotechnical survey of the area was completed this morning and 750 metric tonnes of limestone and debris from the area where the excavator was engulfed had so far been removed.
"Currently we are not considering the use of remote controlled equipment or drones. However, we have brought in heavy duty equipment such as excavators, bulldozers and winching equipment. This will be a staged and controlled recovery operation and we are making good progress in locating the driver.
"We are getting to the stage where we have reached the top of the excavator cab area. Work is continuing to locate the driver," Insp Parnell said.
WorkSafe NZ had issued a prohibition notice stopping all quarrying work on the site.
Mr Taylor was company director of Heathstock Haulage which operated out of the Limeworks Rd quarry. He also operated the lime operation from the quarry which he leased from the Hurunui District Council.
Quarries dangerous
Quarries can be just as dangerous to work in as mines and tighter safety regulations are needed on sites, trade union president Helen Kelly says.
Safety changes were made in 2013 in the mining industry following the 2010 Pike River tragedy on the West Coast when 29 men lost their lives, but quarries were deliberately left out of the changes, Ms Kelly told broadcaster Paul Henry this morning.
While quarries were originally included in the bill, "they were excluded when the law was passed and those laws would have allowed workers on the site to have day-to-day responsibilities," Ms Kelly said.
"And the Prime Minister admits it was because of lobbying."
WorkSafe officials could not be on site every day, but workers were, and if an elected representative was trained to enforce safety laws, it would empower workers, Ms Kelly said.
"It's not too hard to allow workers to participate. "Why not empower them ... what is the worst that could happen?"
New Zealand quarries had an accident rate six times higher than the United Kingdom, Ms Kelly said.
There have been two other deaths this year in quarry accidents.
