A week ago the wheeled inspection vehicle started travelling into the 2.3-kilometre access drift tunnel, where wet conditions short-circuited a bomb disposal unit last year.
The remote-operated, skid-steered vehicle reached the abandoned load haul dump around 1600 metres into the tunnel.
Pike River survivor Daniel Rockhouse was thrown off the LHD by the force of the first underground explosion on November 19 and this machine is believed to be in the middle of the roadway.
PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and PRC receiver John Fisk told ILN the inspection vehicle had gotten caught in a ditch while it was reversing away from the LHD.
The inspection vehicle featured a separate and smaller remote-operated robot which could be launched off it to get around obstacles.
“Unfortunately, that didn’t work,” Fisk said.
Footage revealed the condition of the drift looked “fine” apart from some high-tension cables which appeared to have further drooped down.
While teams at the mine work with the Water Corporation to decide the next steps to take with the inspection vehicle, there are plans to drill a new borehole to intersect the pit bottom area of the mine.
This borehole will allow additional gas samples to be taken, but will more importantly help establish if a roof fall is blocking off areas further into the mine.
“It looks like there has been a roof fall somewhere around that area, just given the atmospheric readings we are getting and some of the video footage we have been able to get inside the mine,” Fisk said.
“So we just want to try and get a better understanding of what’s there.”
While there has been no “substantial change” in the underground atmosphere, which remains inert, Fisk said temperatures were still coming down by small amounts each week.
Solid Energy, which operates the nearby Spring Creek hydro-mining operation, has already stated its intention to bid for the Pike River assets.
Solid chief executive Don Elder said there was “only one more opportunity to develop this coal resource” and expressed concerns about the difficulties involved.
Fisk was pleased that Solid was keen to buy the assets, but said other mining companies would make their own independent assessments of the assets.
“They won’t be relying on what Solid Energy is saying.”
Hopes of finding more survivors from the mine ended after the second underground explosion on November 24.
Damage from subsequent methane explosions and a fire underground further complicated the recovery effort.
