Via the NZ Herald:
A specialist in coal mine explosion prevention has called Solid Energy’s decision not to re-enter the Pike River mine irrational.
Engineer David Creedy prepared a report, which concluded it would be safe to cautiously enter the mine to look for evidence of the cause the blasts which killed 29 men in November 2010.
…
Creedy told the Herald “there wasn’t a lot of logic” in Solid Energy’s final decision not to re-enter the mine due to “potentially fatal risk factors.”
Going into an area with a high level of methane was standard, he said, and rescuers would use breathing apparatus.
…
Creedy questioned whether Solid Energy’s motivation to re-enter the mine was due to safety concerns, or financial or political pressure.
“Certainly there was no benefit for Solid Energy to go back in.
“They looked at the [coal] deposit and they assessed where the reserves they were interested in were, once they decided there was no reserve of interest then clearly there’s no positive benefit for them to do anything,” Creedy said.
“I wonder if they thought that coal was interesting in there, and potentially mineable, whether the outcome would’ve been different.”
A summary and risk management table from the report is available at the Herald website.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress