Man injured in accident at Pike River

A worker has been injured at the Pike River mine site. Photo / Mark Mitchell, NZ Herald

A worker has been injured in an accident at the Pike River mine site this morning.

The man in his 30s suffered moderate injuries when an outbuilding collapsed just before 9am.

Colleagues managed to free the man from the debris before firefighters from Ikamatua arrived, Fire Service southern communications shift manager Andrew Norris said.

The man was transported to Grey Base Hospital by ambulance after the Greymouth-based rescue helicopter could not land because of the weather conditions.

A WorkSafe inspector is already on-site and making preliminary inquiries, a spokesman said.

He confirmed the incident was reported to have happened during the demolition of the bathhouse, located 9km from the mine.

"It appears part of the structure has fallen onto a worker," the WorkSafe spokesman said.

"We want to make it clear that the incident did not occur at the mine."

On November 19, 2010, 29 miners died after an explosion inside Pike River mine.

The injured worker is understood to have been working on the mine's former bathhouse some kilometres from the mine itself.

The bathhouse has recently been sold by Solid Energy, which took over the mine's assets in 2012.

The state-owned company has been selling off a range of surplus plant equipment since a decision last November not to re-enter the mine's drift.

The building's new owner has had three workers there getting it ready to be removed from the site, a Solid Energy spokesman said.

He said the area has since been isolated and made safe, while waiting for WorkSafe inspectors to arrive.