While Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn seeks to secure funds for the retrieval of the bodies of the 29 men killed in the Pike River mine disaster, receivers say it will be two to four years before the bodies could be recovered.

The Pike River Royal Commission of Inquiry will finally ask what caused the fatal mine blast.

The former CEO of Pike River Coal has been criticised for refusing to appear at the Greymouth District Council hearings into the deaths of 29 miners in November last year. Gordon Ward was the chief executive until seven weeks before the final blast..