A wrap of events on the third day of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River tragedy. For up-to-the-minute coverage, bookmark our live updates here
Inspectors the most senior role in mines
In the past, mine inspectors would need to be as competent and have the same range of skills as a mine manager, Mr Hughes says.
However, he says he is not aware that the role of Chief Inspector of Coal Mines is carried out by anyone these days, as it was disestablished with the repeal of the Coal Mines Act.
The role of the check inspector goes wider than just health and safety, he adds.
“Whether there is a place for check inspectors or not at the moment, I’d prefer not to comment.
“It is my view that the use of check inspectors… may have some benefit.”
Mr Hughes says at the time of the inquiry into the Brunner mine disaster – in 1896, where 65 miners died - check inspectors were “very thin on the ground.”
Dept of Labour considered inspections ‘excessive’
“My recollection is that the Department of Labour considered the inspection of coal mines to be excessive,” says Mr Hughes.
He adds that it is a personal observation that Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) inspectors hardly ever attended mines, except where there had been an accident.
Earlier this morning Mr Hughes also testified that the coal mines inspectorate diminished with the number of retirements and resignations taking effect.
“Those reductions in the number of coal inspectors considerably increased the workload of those who remained,” his statement reads.
He says that impacted on the frequency with which inspections were conducted.
“At one point I was carrying out inspections in the Waikato, on the West Coast and into Southland,” he says.
Previously, at least four people would carry out those inspections – one in each district.
Coal mines are unforgiving places – inspector
Coal mines can be very unforgiving places, Mr Hughes says.
“People unfamiliar with the environment have the potential to get themselves into trouble very quickly.”
He points to methane, lack of oxygen, and other hazards within the mine.
“It is the ability to identify these things before they cause harm,” he says, reiterating his point for the need for experience in coal mines.
Sound mining practice, Health and Safety inseparable
Mr Hughes says when a problem or shortcoming was identified within a mine, the first step as Chief Mines Inspector was to contact the operations manager of the mine in question.
He said if the problem could not be rectified, the mine would be closed down.
Sound mining practice is inseparable from health and safety, Mr Hughes says.
Mines have been closed down in the past because of required work that has not been attended to, the Inquiry was told.
‘Hazardous’ mines have more frequent inspections
"The approach for mines with more apparent hazards tended to attract a greater frequency of inspections,” says former Chief Inspector of Coal Mines Robin Hughes.
"For smaller mines it was inevitably monthly. For larger mines, it was weekly."
Asked whether Pike River would be classified as a small or large mine, Mr Hughes says he isn’t familiar enough with the mine to say. But, he says, in the context of the New Zealand mining industry it is large.
Mr Hughes says there are benefits from having regular inspections of mines as inspectors become familiar with their mines.
He says district inspectors would have good knowledge of what was happening in all mines in their districts. Accidents would be notified and the inspector would attend the mine as soon as practicable.
Husband warned ‘don’t go in the mine’
In August 2010, Dr Newman says she warned her husband – who would often provide assistance separating clean coal in the Pike River wash plant – not to enter the mine.
“I told him I would rather he didn't go in the mine,” she said.
"He asked me why not - I said it's just everything, the geology.
"It was just my feeling at that stage that things were converging on a situation I wasn't comfortable with."
Under cross-examination, Dr Newman says alarm bells began ringing when she read about management changes at the mine in the newspaper.
Concerns over safety at Pike River
Dr Newman says she was concerned when she learned Peter Whittall had taken over as chief executive at Pike River, as there would be no on-site person dealing with safety and operational matters.
"This made me anxious, I already had concerns about the geology not being sufficiently defined,” she says.
"Now that Mr Whittall was offsite, who was the person on-site?"
A possible cause of the Pike River explosion?
Dr Newman says one possibility is that in-seam drilling could fail to identify that the ‘roof’ or ‘floor’ is just a mid-coal seam strata of rock. This could result in trapped gas being released in an outburst.
“I’m not saying this is what has happened at Pike River,” she says. “It is purely a hypothesis”.
Dr Newman says that a split-seam mining situation has happened before in the Strongman Mine 1.
"On one occasion they mined through a fault and did not immediately realise this. "These things can fool you.”
Dr Newman says the stratography is “similarly complex” between the Pike River and Strongman mines.
She says that management told her in an ostensive meeting, "We don't want to talk to you, we aren't interested in the work you do."
Pike River a ‘complex’ mine – Geologist
The third day of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River mine tragedy begins with Dr Jane Newman presenting evidence on the geological implications that affected the mine.
She discussed the potential stratographic complexity of the mine’s coal seam, including the presence of sandstone which could be misidentified by the drillers as ground rock.
"There is a concern that I have, that any geologist would have, in-seam drilling is not well designed for identifying this, especially if you are not aware of stratographic complexity, and I am not confident that the company was aware of this."
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