A 20-tonne nitrogen generator is now pumping nitrogren into the Pike River Mine.

Silver Ferns Farms has hit back at complaints that workers at its Te Aroha plant had their pay deducted for observing a two-minute silence to remember the Pike River miners.

The Pike River mine will not be handed over to receivers while the operation to recover the bodies of the 29 workers continues, police say.

Staff at a North Island freezing works had their pay cut for the official two-minute silence to remember the 29 miners killed in the Pike River mine.

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 after police offered to take them to the mine on December 25.

A 20-tonne nitrogen generator has arrived to aid the operation to recover 29 bodies from Pike River Coal mine.

The Govt is considering fast tracking the expansion of coal mining operations on the West Coast.

The Government has agreed to work on an economic stimulus package for the West Coast.

Labour Leader Phil Goff has joined calls for the Government to fund the recovery of the bodies of 29 men trapped in the Pike River mine.

Out-of-work Pike River miners will start finding out today if they have jobs, and if not, how much they will be paid out.

A grieving father and spokesman for families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River Coal mine says he's "gutted" for the Pike River workers made redundant after the company went into receivership.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn is calling for Pike River to be made into an opencast coal mine, amid efforts to keep the 114 skilled miners made redundant today on the West Coast.

Many suppliers may never be paid back for giving to the recovery operation at Pike River Coal mine, the Grey District Mayor says.

Receivers for Pike River Coal are making 114 of its employees redundant immediately.

The families of the 29 workers who died in the Pike River mine are calling on the Govt to fund the recovery operation.

An Australian mine safety expert and a former senior NZ public servant have been named as Royal Commissioners in the Pike River mine tragedy inquiry.

Herald deputy business editor Grant Bradley, who has visited the Pike River mine and covered the company for the Business Herald, on why today's receivership move by Pike River was inevitable.

Pike River Coal Ltd, the owner of Pike River mine, has been put into receivership.