An inquiry into the disaster heard experts from Solid Energy believed Pike River Coal was unequipped to deal with the mining technique.

Solid Energy general manager Craig Smith revealed a worrying picture into the use of hydraulic mining at the mine during evidence to the Royal Commission Inquiry yesterday.

He said four Solid Energy workers, including a senior hydraulic miner, were invited by Pike River Coal to look at the mines hydro monitor because “Pike were having difficulties getting their productivity up to planned levels.”

“The purpose of the visit was to see how the monitor itself was being used to cut coal,” Smith said.

The men, who each had 20 to 30 years experience mining in New Zealand’s west coast, visited the mine on November 3, 2010, where it became apparent the miners were out of their depth when it came to hydro mining.

“Solid Energy group’s impression was that the equipment was larger and more complex in its design than necessary and the Pike staff lacked experience with it,” Smith said.

“The panel was still very much a trial and Pike was not ready to move to full production.

“Pike was trying to extract coal without fully understanding the conditions or investing in necessary development and infrastructure.”

The team also observed that it appeared the cutting technique used at the mine to extract the coal was “unsuitable for the conditions.”

They concluded the cutting technique of the coal, which appeared to be slow, was the reason for low cutting rates.

On the day of the visit the team had noticed the monitor’s operator was inexperienced, while visibility from the monitor controls at the guzzler were “extremely poor.”

“The operator was unable to see the full range of the monitor barrel’s movement,” Smith said.

During Smith’s evidence, the inquiry heard that a day after Solid Energy had visited the mine, PRC chief executive officer Peter Whittall emailed Pike River director’s dismissing the teams concerns.

“We had a visit from the senior Spring Creek management and hydro team yesterday who inspected the face and observed operations. They concluded that our systems and cutting techniques were consistent with their own and had no significant advice to offer at this stage,” the email said.

Smith said the Solid Energy group strongly disagreed with Whittall’s comments.

“The cutting techniques observed were not consistent with the methods employed at Spring Creek and advice on how to improve the technique of monitor operators at Pike was given,” he said.

“The lack of experience and qualified staff at Pike River with knowledge about hydraulic mining was apparent.”

Smith said it was clear Pike needed more information about hydraulic mining and advice on how it could improve production.

Also taking the stand during the inquiry yesterday was Pike River’s former hydro mining operator Masaoki Nishioka, from Japan.

Nishioka, who has 40 years experience in underground mining, told the inquiry about his reservations regarding the use of hydro mining at Pike River from the time he started in July 2010.

He had concerns about the high methane levels at the mine during hydromining and the location of the hydro monitor, which was close to the mines pit, known as the Hawera Fault.

Nishioka also said he could not pinpoint a clear leader for the hydro mining project.

“What I felt was that organisation was not well functioning because I couldn’t find anybody particularly responsible to a particular area,” he said.

Nishioka said nobody could give him details about the mine’s ventilation system, including who was responsible for it.

“What I received is ask somebody else, ask to somebody else and ask to somebody else,” he said.

Nishioka told the mine’s management it was unsafe to send anybody into the mine until an effective ventilation system and second means of egress were installed, but this concern was dismissed.

Documents from September 22 were then presented for evidence, which stated Nishioka’s concerns of methane levels at Pike River.

“It was reported that methane density came up to over 5% in return airway from time when monitoring. It must be noted that it is a safety hazard to continue the monitor extraction under these conditions. It is recommended that monitoring should be stopped until main fan becomes operational.”

However this was not the case, and two days later on September 24, Pike’s management offered a hydro bonus payment for its staff.

Nishioka said this was of a concern, but he didn’t have the right to stop operations so he tried to operate the monitor carefully watching the gas content.

He said management was more concerned about production rate than safety and staff were pushed into producing more coal.

“They (management) should all hear the danger of methane gas before putting pressure on the production, they should give more pressure to getting a main fan going, that is what they were supposed to do,” Nishioka said.

Nishioka told the commission he eventually left the mine approximately three months after he started because of the grave safety concerns he held surrounding the mines hydro mining technique.