Christmas at Pike River for families

Bernie Monk embraces a supporter after a memorial service for his son Michael Monk at St Patrick's Church in Greymouth. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Families of the 29 miners who died at Pike River Coal mine have been given a chance to spend Christmas near the bodies of their loved ones.

Bernie Monk, father of Michael Monk, one of the lost miners, says he is desperate to take up a police offer to transport his family to the mine site on Christmas Day.

It will be a chance to "touch" his son again, he says.

"My son's up there. What kind of Christmas are we going to have without one of our own?

"We were so close. We're just heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken.
"We want to touch our son again."

The families are due to meet tonight to discuss whether they want to take the trip.

Mr Monk says his family signed up as soon as the offer was mentioned.
He sees it as a way of remembering and including Michael in the family's Christmas.

"That's how important it is. We want to show our respect to Michael."

Mr Monk is the spokesman for a nine-member committee made up of family members of the dead miners.

It has called on the Government to commit to funding the recovery operation at Pike River and to cover families' legal costs during a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster.

Nitrogen machine to aid recovery

The families were buoyed by the arrival of a 20-tonne nitrogen pumping machine from Australia today, says Mr Monk.

But police have told them it could take the machine 108 days to fully cool the mine.

"It's a massive wait."

The machine is being trucked to the mine site and expected to be in use at the weekend.

The machine from Brisbane, Australia is designed to cool down the mine after a fire that raged inside since an explosion on November 19, a police spokeswoman said.

It is hoped the "huge and expensive" machine will be in use at the mine site this weekend, she said.

"The GAG will put out the fire and then the nitrogen will cool the environment.

"This is just the next step in the process. Hopefully there's not too many steps after it."

The nitrogen pumping unit will add to the work of the GAG jet engine in suppressing the fire in the mine, she said.

Superintendent Gary Knowles said today the machine could be used at two new bore holes being dug at Pike River.

He said work to drill a bore hole into a point deep in the mine could be completed soon and another bore hole is being commissioned.

The holes will also allow gas sampling deep in the mine, he said.

"Establishing new sampling points will help build a picture of what's going on underground and... provide possible entry points for the nitrogen."

There was no clear timeframe for completing the drilling yet, he said.

"Because of the terrain drillers are working in it's never straightforward to put in a bore hole in and the work is weather-dependent."

Receiver John Fisk told Radio New Zealand this morning the costly recovery effort at Pike River Coal mine had "weeks, rather than months" left.

Receivers may not claim full payout

Meanwhile, receivers say they may not be able to claim a full $100m insurance payout to reimburse creditors of Pike River Coal.

PricewaterhouseCoopers receiver John Fisk told Radio New Zealand this morning it may not be possible to claim the total amount of two "business interruption" policies held by the company.

That could affect the amount of money available to give to creditors still owed millions by the company, he said.

"The maximum amount of their policy is $100m but the actual amount that could be claimable could be considerably less than that."

Mr Fisk said receivers were still waiting for calculations to show the exact amount of the insurance claim for Pike River Coal.

The company announced it is going into receivership on December 13, after explosions killed 29 workers in its Pike River mine.

It still owes $80m to secured creditors BNZ and New Zealand Oil and Gas.

Another estimated $10 to $15m is owed to contractors, including some of the men who lost their lives in the disaster.

It remains to be seen whether there will be enough money to pay back those unsecured creditors, said Mr Fisk.

They will remain behind the company's redundant workers and secured creditors in the hierarchy of payments, he said.

"That's the risk that people take when they trade with a company."

Mr Fisk said he was talking with secured creditors about the possibility of a package to pay out some contractors.

"We have discussed it but we need to understand what the extent of the situation is.

"They don't have any legal obligation to do anything but what they've asked us for is to quantify the situation and that's what we're working through at the moment."