Hope Fades For New Zealand Miners, Families Warned On Deaths
23 November 2010 - 7:10PM
Dow Jones News
Hope is fading for 29 miners missing in a damaged New Zealand
mine as rescuers struggle to establish contact and video footage
showed the scale of an explosion that ripped through underground
tunnels four days ago.
"The situation gets bleaker by the hour and for everyone that's
a frustrating situation," said New Zealand police commissioner
Howard Broad, who is involved in the rescue. Families are now being
cautioned by police that the men inside the remote mine may already
be dead.
The rescue effort was hit Tuesday when an army robot, normally
used to disarm bombs, broke down inside the mine as it attempted to
make contact with those trapped. A second remote device will now be
sent into the mine to search for survivors and gauge levels of
poisonous gas including carbon-monoxide thought still to be present
underground, police said.
Experts say there is a possibility that pockets of air still
exist in the mine, but optimism of a rescue is waning. Miners
trapped in a 2006 West Virginia coal mine explosion were rescued 41
hours after the disaster in one of the longest examples of people
surviving carbon-monoxide poisoning.
"We are hoping the men in this case have reached a point of
safety and are waiting," said Paul Healey, general manager of
Australia's New South Wales Mines Rescue. "But as the days pass
that is becoming more unlikely."
The trapped miners include 24 New Zealanders, two Australians,
two British nationals and one South African.
Rescuers are also working on boring a hole about 150
meters-long, which will help locate the miners and measure
conditions. Rescuers say the bore is close to completion but
progress has slowed as engineers fear triggering a second explosion
in the shaft.
The mine's operator, Pike River Coal Ltd. (PRC.NZ) is about 29%
owned by New Zealand Oil & Gas Ltd. (NZO.NZ), with India's
Saurashtra World Holding Private Ltd. and Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd.
owning 5.5% and 7.1%. Shares in New Zealand Oil & Gas plunged
28% to 0.87 New Zealand dollars (US$0.67) when trading closed
Tuesday. The abrupt drop in the share price has raised concerns of
Pike River's financial future amid the rescue effort.
"It is possible that the suspension could remain in force for a
number of months given the seriousness of the incident and a
promised government inquiry," said Macquarie Equities Research in a
note. Macquarie now has a neutral rating on the stock down from
outperform due to the uncertainty. "Effectively we have removed our
recommendation."
At its own request, trading in Pike River's shares in Wellington
and Sydney is suspended indefinitely in the aftermath of the
disaster, which marks the latest in a series setbacks for New
Zealand's largest listed mining company. Not least a NZ$39 million
New Zealand dollar loss for the financial year ended June 30 as
higher-than-expected expenses and repeated delays hit production
targets at its damaged mine.
Earlier, the company's chairman John Dow told Dow Jones
Newswires that Pike River has insurance in place to cover business
interruptions and trauma, without giving further details.
-By Lucy Craymer, Dow Jones Newswires; 64-4-471-5990;
rebecca.howard@dowjones.com
(Rebecca Howard in Wellington contributed to this story.)
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