28 August 2018

Te Kāhui Whakamana Rua Tekau mā Iwa Pike River Recovery Agency is advertising for five new mining staff to assist with the re-entry and recovery of the Pike River Mine drift access tunnel.

A good deal of physical labour-intensive work needs to be carried out shortly, in accordance with the detailed operational plan being developed, Chief Operating Officer Dinghy Pattinson says.

“One of the first of these tasks coming up will be laying the nitrogen lines up in the bush. These miners will need to have at least two to five years of experience working in underground New Zealand coal mines because of the other work we’ll need to undertake around recovery of the drift.”

The Agency is initially advertising on the West Coast, as Mr Pattinson believes there are capable miners based locally who would be interested in the work.

“We’ve got a great team, and whoever applies for the job needs to be able to fit in and get on with the work straight away. One of our founding principles is about operating best practice health, safety and wellbeing, and we’ve set a high standard and a good track record to date.

“These are fixed term roles through to June next year and we expect to hear from a number of West Coast miners who are keen to be part of this re-entry and recovery project,” Mr Pattinson says.

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