The former chief executive of Pike River Coal has formed a new business which consults on mine safety, among other issues.
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn is due to fly to Wellington in the next few weeks to meet the Prime Minister and Pike River Mine receivers in a further bid to secure funds for the retrieval of the bodies of the 29 men, killed there in November 2010.
Lawyers for former Pike River Coal head Peter Whittall are considering applying to have some of the charges against him dropped because of the timeframe in which they were laid.
The former Pike River Coal boss who has set up a mining consultancy business, which includes advising on mine safety, has not started working, his lawyer says.
It could take up to five years to recover the remains of the 29 Pike River miners, an expert employed by the families says.
A multimillion-dollar trust is being planned to continue efforts to recover workers' remains from the Pike River mine, and the taxpayer is being asked to contribute.
A Christmas card sent to one of the dead workers in the Pike River mine from Prime Minister John Key and his wife has been labelled "really distasteful'' by the man's widow.
Police are on the verge of a decision on criminal charges over the Pike River Coal mine disaster.
The sale of the Pike River coal mine on the West Coast is likely to be weeks away, as interested parties work through their respective due diligence on the company.
The receiver for Pike River Coal doesn't expect to sign a sale agreement before Christmas as negotiations with international parties interested in the sealed coal mine continue.
The abundance of memorials around Greymouth to the 29 men who perished in the Pike River Mine explosion has led their families to call for the proposed Karoro Lake monument to be dedicated generally to all those who have died in West Coast mining accidents.
Plastic bags were placed over gas sensors and explosives were used in an unsafe manner inside the Pike River mine, its "gutted" former safety manager says.
A report into what led to multiple criminal charges being laid after the Pike River mine explosions will be made public.
The chairman of Pike River Coal said yesterday he was "horrified" at a litany of safety incidents at the West Coast mine, but could offer no meaningful explanation as to why they never reached his ears before the tragedy last November.
A special seal to go by the major rockfall, 2.4km underground inside the Pike River Mine, is on a ship to New Zealand.
The three parties facing Department of Labour charges relating to the deaths of 29 men in the Pike River Mine disaster have been granted registrar's adjournments to a yet-to-be-determined date.
Pike River Coal's former chief executive Gordon Ward has refused appear at the Royal Commission into the mining disaster.
Peter Whittall, the face of the Pike River Coal mine disaster, will finish up as chief executive today.
The last person to see the coal face deep inside the Pike River Mine told the Royal Commission of Inquiry yesterday "at some stage it was going to collapse".
Two thousand people stood shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm among a sea of black shirts and yellow ribbons as Greymouth came to a halt at 3.44pm today to remember its 29 dead from the Pike River Mine tragedy.