Seriously injured person rescued after falling 30m down abandoned Tyneside Mine on West Coast

A person has been taken to Greymouth Hospital in a serious condition after falling down the old Tyneside Mine on the West Coast.

A rescue operation was launched just after 11am.

A Fire and Emergency shift manager said the rescue team descended 30 metres down the old mine shaft to retrieve one person.

The rescue took about three hours and Fire and Emergency left shortly after 2pm.

Hato Hone St John said the injured person was taken to Greymouth Hospital in a serious condition.

Earlier, a Fire and Emergency shift manager said the person was stuck at the bottom of a mine shaft.

The highway side of the site was closed during the rescue.

Department of Conservation Greymouth senior ranger Darrell Haworth said staff were on-site during the rescue. The trapped person was in a shaft on the highway side of the Brunner Mine site.

“The mineshaft is securely fenced; at this time, we do not know how the person accessed the shaft.”

The Tyneside mine operated from the 1870s until 1908.

It was one of several mines on the banks of the Grey River, between the townships of Stillwater and Taylorville, near Dobson.