The GAG (Gorniczy Agregat Gasniczy) machine will put out fires in the mine with the use of water vapour so teams can attempt to recover the bodies of the 29 men from the West Coast mine.
"This was never a quick fix. We saw yesterday, by the fact that a contractor took a short cut, we had a fire and I'm going to reinforce that we follow the programme. This GAG is a huge piece of equipment that when it works, it has to work properly,'' Mr Knowles told media this afternoon.
The use of the GAG unit at the portal of the mine was delayed yesterday after foam used to seal the mine caught fire.
However, today's preparation had gone well, with 99.9 percent of the mine sealed using liquid concrete, and the GAG would hopefully be deployed tonight, Mr Knowles said.
"Once we can stabilise the environment, hopefully using the GAG, then we're in a better position to assess whether we can get teams underground. That's the focal point of our whole recovery operation,'' he said.
Mr Knowles also said that Australian underground explosions expert Dr David Cliff had been at the tunnel all day, working with mine staff, and had an important role to play.
"Dave Cliff has been a fantastic source of information. He is working with our experts at the frontline. He's a really crucial part of what we're going to do moving forward.''
Dr Cliff had stressed to the recovery team that safety must be the priority before anyone went near the mine.
"Once the GAG's put the fire out we're then looking at other measures such as putting in nitrogen so we can reduce the temperature underground and hopefully get down there.''
The GAG machine would extinguish the fire coming out of the ventilation shaft, which would then be capped.
Footage of explosions at the mine, released by police today, gave the recovery team a "real perspective'' on what they were facing and reinforced that people would have died if they had attempted a rescue.
The recovery operation would continue tomorrow afternoon, despite the national remembrance service for the 29 men who died in the mine.
"All the emergency services would like to be at the remembrance service but we also want to make sure we focus on the rescue,'' he said.
He could not provide a specific time for the deployment of the GAG.
