The Pike River Coal mine was an "accident waiting to happen", where serious safety concerns were repeatedly flagged, but apparently not acted upon, the Royal Commission of Inquiry heard yesterday.
Speculation is rife over who has been charged with negligence at the Pike River mine as three unidentified parties face prosecution following the explosions that killed 29 workers.
The area of Pike River being hydraulically mined is a "prime suspect'' in determining what happened last November, the head of the Royal Commission of Inquiry said this morning.
The man who led the police response to the Pike River mine disaster has been promoted.
Companies owed money by the Pike River Coal Company have voted overwhelmingly to accept a payment plan, which will pump $3 million back into the ailing West Coast economy in the next few weeks.
The Department of Labour will be first to go under the spotlight when the Pike River Royal Commission resumes next month.
Prime Minister John Key was to get some straight talking today in a Greymouth meeting with Pike River families, already fired up after nearly three weeks of gruelling testimony at the Royal Commission of Inquiry.
The Department of Labour's mines inspectors may be in the firing line as it considers whom to prosecute over the deadly Pike River Mine explosion, the Royal Commission of Inquiry was told yesterday.
The families of the 29 men whose bodies still lie inside the Pike River mine say they will hold Prime Minister John Key to his promise of getting the bodies out, when they meet him in Greymouth today.
The top policeman who fronted the Pike River rescue made a tearful apology to families and said he was gutted at some of their criticisms of him, during the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Greymouth yesterday.
Royal Commission of Inquiry commissioner Stewart Bell, head of Mine Safety and Health for Queensland, yesterday grilled the top policeman in charge of the Pike River rescue about why he did not let a mining expert lead part of the rescue effort.
News that Pike River Coal Ltd's unsecured creditors will get some of the $5 million they are collectively owed was greeted with relief in Greymouth today.
Pike River health and safety manager Neville Rockhouse - whose son Ben died underground - conceded under cross-examination today that the mine's safety plans simply did not consider that it might explode.
The smoke-filled fresh air base that Pike River Mine survivor Daniel Rockhouse staggered to had been decommissioned, and a new one was just weeks away from being installed, the royal commission of inquiry in Greymouth was told yesterday.
Pike River safety and training manager Neville Rockhouse, whose son died in the West Coast coal mine disaster, tried to stop the main ventilation shaft being approved as an escape exit and noted when staff tested the vertical route, they became too exhausted to make it to the top.
Two Pike River Mine deputies were fired for serious safety breaches before the deadly November blast, a Department of Labour report released this week reveals.
In the wake of the Pike River Mine disaster the Government will set up a high hazards unit to monitor mining and petroleum production.
Enhanced images from inside the Pike River mine leave no doubt two bodies are visible, a spokesman for the victims' families says.
The father of a man who died in the Pike River mine says he would not have let his son underground had he known about the concerns expressed by a leading geologist.
Praise was heaped on him for his leadership following the deaths of 29 workers at Pike River mine.