Borehole 45 was recently drilled to investigate the possibility that a major roof fall had occurred.

Fisk, from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, told ILN that based on the information obtained there was a significant roof fall about 2.3 kilometres into the access tunnel.

He said the fall was at the end of the tunnel before the ventilation shaft and the mine’s “spaghetti junction” area of intersecting roadways.

There are plans to inspect the roof fall to confirm how serious it is.

“If there is a significant roof fall there then we will need to put a permanent seal at the end of the tunnel,” Fisk said.

He acknowledged such a necessity would make it difficult for the families in terms of any possible body recovery exercise.

Work underway is focusing on replacing the hastily-made seal at the portal with more airtight steel double doors.

A temporary seal will be built 200 metres into the access tunnel to provide enough fresh air to put in the steel doors at the portal.

Fisk said there were concept plans for a staged re-entry of the mine after this work was done.

The plan involved Mine Rescue personnel entering the mine and setting up temporary seals at intervals of 300m.

Fresh air would then be allowed into the mine up to each temporary seal as rescue specialists progressively worked their way up the tunnel.

This exercise would help identify whether the tunnel can be recovered, and could allow personnel to get a better idea of how serious the roof fall is at the end of it.

About 1600m into the tunnel is an abandoned load haul dump vehicle.

Camera-equipped bomb disposal robots and the Western Australian Water Corporation’s tunnel inspection vehicle have failed to get around the LHD in all attempts so far.

Recent developments

The body thought to have been discovered by a camera down a borehole and from laser scanning was found underground near borehole 47.

Fisk said this area was “quite a long way inside the mine” and up to where the hydromonitor, which cuts the coal seam using high-pressure water, was working.

Former Pike safety and training manager Neville Rockhouse was retrenched on Friday and recently discussed financial issues on a New Zealand radio program.

One of his main points was that all stakeholders of the coal company, along with Prime Minister John Key, should meet and come up with a plan to fund efforts to recover the bodies of the 29 men lost in the mining disaster last year.

Fisk said he was “more than happy” to help facilitate and coordinate such a process.

“Obviously we don’t have $10 million to spend on a body recovery exercise,” he said.

Sales process

Fisk said the sales process for the coal company was going well and the deadline for expressions of interest was this Thursday.

This will be followed by a four-week period of due diligence before indicative bids are called for.

The receiver is aiming to strike a sales agreement in early August.

Fisk confirmed there was interest from Chinese, Indian, American and Australian-based coal companies for Pike’s assets and there was already 30 unsolicited expressions of interest before the formal process had begun.

The completion of the sale might take a few months beyond August, especially if the successful bidder was a foreign company or consortium of companies which would need to gain government regulatory approvals.

The first explosion of the disaster struck on November 19 and hopes of finding more than the two survivors ended after the second blast struck on November 24.

Damage from subsequent methane explosions and a fire underground further complicated recovery work.