Watch: Pike River recovery workers digging out the Rocsil plug.
Video / Supplied
New items are being dragged deep out of the Pike River Mine to be forensically examined by police.
The expert re-entry team reached its targeted point at the roof fall last month about 2.2kms up the access tunnel - after explosions left 29 men dead in the West Coast mine in 2010.
Some family members have urged the Pike River Recovery Agency to go beyond the rockfall.
But Pike River Re-entry Minister Andrew Little says the agency's role hasn't changed, saying the recovery of mine workings beyond the rock fall isn't within its mandate.
Most of the 21 recovery staff will exit their jobs at the end of the year.
For now however, the work goes on, says Dinghy Pattinson, chief operating officer for Pike River Recovery, with efforts now focusing on helping the police to forensically examine items found inside the mine.
From left: Dinghy Pattinson, Lloyd Steward, Geoff Rubbo, Leon Pigott and Luke Taylor celebrate reaching the roof fall. Photo / Supplied
They are currently concentrating on a 600m stretch deep inside the mine which housed electrical infrastructure and pumps.
Pattinson says they have "brought a number of items" out of the mine for police to carry out full forensic examinations above ground.
They will continue with that phase of the work over the next few months, Pattinson says.
"We haven't finished yet," Pattinson said today.
"One of our main mandates was to recover the tunnel or the drift up until the roof-fall so the police could carry out the forensics in their investigation.
"When started off we didn't actually know if that could be achieved because we didn't know what was in the tunnel. So to me, it's been a success."
When approached for comment today, police said: "While the investigation remains ongoing we are not in a position to speak to the specifics of the activities being undertaken at the mine site or what may or may not have been located. The reason for this is to maintain the integrity of the investigation."
Once the recovery team have cleared the mine, the team will pull out and seal the portal with a solid concrete plug which will cover the full width of the tunnel and be some 25-30m long. It will be designed to completely seal the mine so that any methane inside can't leak out.
The site will then be handed over to the Department of Conservation.
Pike River Recovery Agency chief executive Dave Gawn says it's likely that $4.2million in contingency funds approved by the Government will be used - which would bring the total of the re-entry to $51m.
When the agency reached the furthest point in the mine it planned to go last month, Sonya Rockhouse who lost her son Ben in the explosion said: "I'm really pleased that the agency has got to the end of the drift, but this recovery process was never going to be the final chapter."
She added: "The drift recovery was always about retrieving evidence and, if they were there, remains. Now that the mining work is done the in-depth forensics can be completed and the legal work can begin."
