The remains of some of the men killed in the Pike River mine disaster, one of New Zealand’s worst mining disasters, have been found more than a decade after the explosion.
The blast in November 2010 killed 29 workers, and many of the families have been fighting to have the remains of their loved ones found ever since. The mining tragedy – New Zealand’s worst in 100 years – resonated around the world: among the men who died were 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two British citizens and one South African.
Police announced on Wednesday, just two days before the 11th anniversary of the disaster, that some of those remains had been found – but that they were in the farthest reaches of the mine, and could not be recovered. “We have recovered some images from the boreholes that confirm two deaths, two bodies, and with the possibility of a third body,” Ch Supt Peter Read said.
“It’s a really stark reminder of the pain, of the loss,” Read said, “but they add to a picture of investigation and hopefully they’ll go towards getting some answers to the families.”
“While we’ve been unable to identify the remains, we’re working with forensic experts to see what we can do to confirm.”
Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton was killed in the mine, said the news came as a shock. “My mind was actually on the 19th of November, which is the anniversary …it was the furthest most thought from my mind … so it was a bit of a shock, I wasn’t prepared for it.”
But she also felt relief and “a bit of pride”. “We fought really hard to get this police investigation up and going,” she said.
Osborne said Wednesday’s news provided the families with some reassurance that police were doing a good job. “They are finding evidence, which is like building that jigsaw puzzle.”
“Twenty-nine men didn’t deserve to die, but the families definitely deserve some justice,” she said.
Rick “Rowdy” Durbridge, whose son was killed in the mine, told the New Zealand Herald he too was shocked. “You know the guys are down there but to know they have been seen, it hits you hard,” he said. “We’ve fought hard for years now to get justice for our boys, and this is part of it happening.
“This is why we worked so hard to negotiate these boreholes and we’ll be supporting the police in whatever way we can to take this further if it needs to happen.”
Police are still conducting a criminal investigation into the mine explosion. A royal commission in 2012 found safety warnings were ignored at the site, and that government regulators had failed to inspect it effectively. No individual has ever been successfully prosecuted over the disaster.
The news followed recent drilling of boreholes into the mine. Read said the discovery of the remains was “not unexpected” and had been enabled by technological advances. “We know that there were 29 men down there and we’re drilling boreholes in areas where we know people were working so it’s not unexpected,” Read said. “[With] old technology, we were lucky if we could see five or 10 metres – this is allowing us to see 40 or 50 metres.”
Police said they could not speculate on whether prosecutions would result from the new images, and that there was no timeline for when the investigation would be concluded.
New Zealand’s government had spent more than NZ$50m (£26m) on exploring the access tunnel in an attempt to find the remains. This year, the government announced it would stop funding that mission, but continue to support the police inquiry.
Andrew Little, the minister responsible for Pike River re-entry, was notified about the discovery of human remains on Wednesday morning.
“You take a moment to reflect, and look, the families have been carrying this for some considerable time, not just the disaster itself and the loss of the loved ones, but the process of government and the government departments I think have led them to expect that various things were going to be done, and they haven’t been done.”
The Pike River agency has reached the end of its budget, Little said, and advice from the police and the agency is that recovery is likely to be “impossible”.
He said the new information did not signal any plans to unseal the mine.
“As we had agreed with the families, and the family representatives, safety is the paramount consideration. All the advice was, simply, that it is not safe, nor technically possible, to get through the most unstable and dangerous part of the mine site, which is the roof fall.”
Little will speak to family representatives over the next few days and will seek advice from officials.
“There’s no question in my mind – the Pike River Mine company was trying to get the quickest return on investment, knowing that this was an incredibly difficult project to pull off and people have paid for those judgments, and misjudgments, with their lives.”