Pike River board meets to discuss future

There's still 50 million tonnes of coal at Pike River, said chief executive Peter Whittall. Photo / NZPA

Pike River Coal's board is to meet tomorrow to talk about the company's options following the disaster at its West Coast mine that left 29 men dead.

Pike River chairman John Dow told a press briefing today that there were a lot of ideas about what could be done.

When people had asked about the business implications of the tragedy, he had said it was not the time nor the place to be talking about such things, saids Dow.

"But we do have to keep the lights on, and we do have to keep the company running."

Pike's board would be meeting tomorrow morning, and after that, when some business decisions had been made, there would be further reports of the options the company had and the implications of the disaster, "the degree of impairment of the asset, if you like", Dow said.

"We've got a lot of ideas of a lot of things we can do but I don't want to elaborate on them too much. The board meeting tomorrow morning will decide a number of those things and we'll have more details for you tomorrow."

Pike River chief executive Peter Whittall said it was difficult to talk about the future of the mine at this stage.

He did say he had worked in mines where there had been explosions 10 to 15 years before he started at the sites.

"But if the roadways (in the Pike River mine) are open there's still 50-odd million tonnes of coal there," Whittall said.

"The roadways are probably in good condition. No doubt there's been a lot of damage to a lot of equipment but at this stage that's just not what we're focusing on."

Meanwhile Lyttelton Port of Christchurch has extended its sympathy to the West Coast community in a statement today, but said it would not be commenting on the possible implications of the tragedy on coal exports.

"The information is not available at this time and the focus at this time is purely on supporting that community in any way possible," chief executive Peter Davie said.

Pike River exported its second shipment of 20,000 tonnes of hard coking coal, from the port in September.

- NZPA / NZ Herald Online