Mine entrance sealed, expert at site

Mines rescue crew working on the GAG machine. Photo / Pool, The Press

Rescuers have successfully sealed the entrance to the Pike River mine and hope to have preparations for the deployment of a GAG engine completed by this afternoon.

The modified jet engine will be used to starve the West Coast mine of oxygen and enable rescue teams to go in to try to find the bodies 29 men trapped after underground explosions.

It is now thought a fire burning in the mine after the blasts is being fed by coal as well as gas, adding to the difficulty of making the mine safe enough to enter.

Police this morning said work had continued through the night and shotcreting - using liquid concrete to seal the mine - was completed at 9am today.

"The work has taken longer than expected and has been hampered by air movement in and out of the mine and overnight fog," they said.

It was expected that further work to prepare a pad for the GAG unit to sit on would take another four hours.

"The GAG has been successfully tested and it is hoped to be running today, however the mine condition is continually changing," a statement said.

Police said international mine safety expert Associate Professor David Cliff had arrived from Queensland and was meeting with mines, rescue and emergency services personnel at the Pike River mine.

Dr Cliff had particular expertise in emergency preparedness, gas analysis, spontaneous combustion, fires and explosions, they said.

The use of the GAG machine - a jet engine using water vapour - was delayed yesterday morning when polyurethane used to seal the mine portal caught fire. The fire lasted about an hour but set back the use of the engine several hours.

Pike River CEO Peter Whittall yesterday said the GAG jet engine could require up to nine hours of use to be effective.

"We may have to redeploy it again, and we may have to do it again and again, depending on what happens with the fire and how deep-seated it is."

Hopes of recovering bodies

Mr Whittall said he did not know what condition the bodies of the miners would be in, but they could be some distance from the fire.

Asked about the families' hopes of getting bodies out, he said: "I'm sure there's still people in their inner hearts have some hope of even finding a [miner] tapping on a pipe or something.

"But I think largely there is a resignation now, obviously, to the total loss of life, and I think there's also a resignation among some that they may not get their family back as they wish they would."

Carol Rose, whose son Stuart Mudge is among the dead, said her family had never really held any hope of getting his body out of the mine.

"We accepted that almost from the beginning," Mrs Rose said.

"I'm of the opinion that he's got a very nice burial place. He's in a beautiful mountain.

"We are quite okay for him to stay there."

Mrs Rose said she and her family continued to closely follow developments in the retrieval effort despite their views.

"There are a lot of people that really would like to get their loved ones back and for them we just hope they can get them back."

Superintendent Gary Knowles said police involved in the recovery operation were realists, and forensic experts were ready to assist with identifying remains.