A person has been seriously injured after falling about 30m down a mine shaft on the West Coast.
Emergency services were alerted to the incident at 11am on Wednesday.
Firefighters from Greymouth and Brunner used rope lines to enter the Tyneside Mine shaft near Dobson and rescue the person.
St John said an ambulance and an operations manager attended.
"One patient, in serious condition, is being transported to Greymouth Hospital."
The Tyneside Mine operated until 1908.
A restored chimney - next to State Highway 7, about 15km from Greymouth - marked the site of the historic mine.
Coal was mined at the site from the late 1880s, until it flooded in 1908.
