Families of the Pike River dead are vowing to blockade the West Coast mine if coal extraction starts before the bodies of their loved ones are recovered.
Mine buyers Solid Energy last night told families the company was committed, along with the Government, to a body recovery if it is "safe, technically feasible and financially credible to do so''.
But the dead men's families said company officials told them there was only a 5 to 10 percent likelihood of a successful recovery - and any operation could be years away.
Their spokesman Bernie Monk, who lost his 23-year-old son Michael in the explosions in 2010, said he was as "mad as hell'' about a recovery hinging on cash considerations.
He felt the Government had lied to families by guaranteeing it would do anything in its power to retrieve bodies from the mine.
Families were pursuing legal options, talking to unions and would consider blockading the mine if a body recovery was not carried out before production began, he said.
"I'll go up there myself if it comes to it. I'll go up there myself. I'm friggin spewing. I've lost faith in all this. But I'm not going to give up... I want my son home for my family. My son deserves a burial.''
Mr Monk said families felt they had been put back in the position they were in days after the explosion.
