Pike River Recovery Agency workers installing the ventilation control device more than 2000m up the drift. Photo / Supplied
A ventilation control device has been installed in the Pike River mine which means fresh air can circulate more than 2000m up the drift.
A post on social media by the Pike River Recovery Agency said the device, VCD2, was installed on Tuesday.
It is sitting about 2224m up the drift and acts as a wall with an airlock.
Now that it is in place, fresh air will be able to be circulated right up to that point in the drift.
Then mine workers wearing long-duration breathing apparatus will go through an airlock door in the wall, tunnel through the plug which is about 10m, and recover the last few metres to the roof fall.
They can then carry out the final forensic searches of the drift.
Following that will be the completion of the forensics search and recovery operations at the Pit, Bottom in Stone – a 600m network of tunnels off both sides of the main tunnel, which had previously been "roped off" as a potential crime scene.
The 19-year-old was found in a remote area in the hills of Upper Hutt.