Published: 8:43PM Monday November 21, 2011 Source: ONE News
Evidence Pike River mine workers felt pressured to meet
targets was heard at the Royal Commission in Greymouth on 21 November 2011.
The hearing has already been told the company was short of
money, and production was behind schedule.
When the first shipment of Pike River coal left for India
early last year the company was under pressure.
In February 2010 former chief executive Gordon Ward said the
company had had "some challenges" and there was no question that
"we need now to meet our production targets".
A month after Ward made the comments, mining consultant David
Stewart was called in to do an audit because morale was low and they weren't
producing enough coal.
He found workers under pressure.
"Everybody was aware of the cost of the operation to
date...the missed targets for development and production...and the financial
crunch relating to the company as a whole," Stewart said.
In a series of audits six months before the explosion,
Stewart raised concerns about the ventilation system and methane management.
He said although there's a level of mistrust between workers
and management in all mines, it was worse at Pike.
Stewart said staff turnover was high, with many overseas and
inexperienced workers, but individually he felt they were doing the best that
they could.
But Pike's lawyer argued the problems highlighted could well
have been fixed by the time of the explosion.
Stewart agreed with Stacey Shortall that he had no direct
knowledge about whether any of the matters he had observed during his audits
remained issues at the time of the explosion.
The pressure on workers came as no surprise to families.
There was pressure, pressure, pressure from all
directions," family spokesperson Bernie Monk said.
The families say there has been little that has
been positive to come out of all the evidence so far.
Pike River inquiry takes close look
at hydro-mining
DEIDRE MUSSEN
Last updated 17:14 21/11/2011
The coal extraction method used at Pike River coalmine prior
to last November's fatal blast is under close examination at the inquiry into
the tragedy.
Solid Energy's underground mines' general manager, Craig
Smith, has taken the stand this afternoon as an expert to explain hydraulic or
hydro-mining methods.
A wide range of specific expertise and experience was
necessary to safely extract coal using hydraulic mining, he said.
He said risks included methane management, spontaneous
combustion control and safety of the person operating the hydraulic monitor,
particularly from large amounts of methane gas being released into the mine
if a large rockfall occurs.
At the start of the hearings last Monday, Royal Commission
chairman Justice Graham Panckhurst said in a media briefing the goaf or void
left behind after an area was hydro-mined was the most likely source of methane
that fuelled the fatal explosion.
Smith told the inquiry hydraulic mining had ceased in Japan
and Canada and was only used at a small number of mines in Russia, China and
Czechoslovakia.
However, it was ideally suited for West Coast's underground
mines.
He will continue giving evidence tomorrow.
Earlier today, mining consultant David Stewart, chairman of
Mines Rescue Service Trust, told the inquiry Pike had a "greater level of
dysfunction and mistrust" than other mines where he had worked.
"I was not surprised about this because the mine and
company were under a lot of public, financial and internal pressure and the
turnover of senior and middle management and technical staff aggravated this. I
do believe this may have contributed to some of the problems the mine had
experienced," he told the Royal Commission into the deaths of 29 men.
The resumed inquiry at Greymouth District Court has begun
its second week of phase three hearings, which focus on what happened at the
West Coast underground coalmine leading up to the blast.
Stewart was contracted by the mine to undertake 14
compliance audits in February, March and April last year.
It involved auditing compliance on the surface and
underground, plus talking with crews, mine officials and trades staff.
His main impression was a sense of pressure to achieve
targets.
"This was evident because everybody was aware of the
cost of the operation to date, missed targets for development and productions
and financial crunch relating to the company as a whole.
"Almost all employees I talked to felt the pressure to
perform and to get the mine infrastructure and development places ready for the
planned hydro-monitor start-up."
His audits identified a number of safety concerns at Pike
River.
That included having a main fan in the underground gassy
mine, "uncontrolled" gas drainage discharge, "high risks"
of vehicles damaging gas drainage pipes along the mine's roadways and concerns
about ventilation management.
Stewart also criticised the mine's 108m ventilation shaft as
a second escape route, saying it was "impracticable for a large number of
personnel at any one time and only the fittest would escape through this route,
particularly while wearing a self rescuer".
He was told a refuge chamber would be moved from the mine's
tunnel to closer to the working area.
The inquiry has previously heard no such refuge chamber
existed, instead it was a fresh air base where underground staff could access
fresh air and change their self-rescuers.
Stewart was also concerned about obstructions and debris
accumulated in the roadway leading to the shaft.
"This would have caused high resistance at a time when
the mine was struggling for air in the working places, plus it added to fire
risk."
The mine had previous frictional ignition incidents caused
by sparks from the roadheader machine hitting hard quartzite sandstone, which
sometimes intruded into the coal seam.
"These events result in methane catching on fire and
burning in the face area."
This was reported to have happened several times the
previous year, he said.
He said there was "little room for error" in
hyro-monitor coal extraction in gassy mines, such as Pike River and Spring
Creek, unless all the back-up safety systems were well-established.
Many issues raised in his audit were yet to be addressed by
the time he left in late April.
Stewart noted Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall
was"very much" in charge of the operation, despite recently employing
an operations manager and underground mine manager.
Department of Labour is prosecuting Whittall, along with
Pike River Coal (in receivership) and Valley Longwall International's in-seam
drilling subsidiary, VLI Drilling Pty Ltd, over alleged health and safety
failures at the mine.
Pike River mine's former inspector needed time to compose
himself in court today as he said the Labour Department gave him an
"impossible task".
Kevin Poynter, who was Pike River's inspector before the
fatal explosion, made an emotional admission today at the royal commission into
the deaths of 29 men at the Pike River mine.
He said he was under-resourced, inadequately trained and not
supported in his role as health and safety inspector.
The court has heard he raised these issues with the
department about six times, but they had been ignored up until the November 19
explosion.
"It is an impossible task," he said.
"Our responsibility clearly lies with the people who
had the information, that had the control of the workplace. I had seven
inspections over two and a half years and it is just impossible to see all
this."
As he was speaking Michael Firmin, sole mines inspector in
New Zealand who was grilled on the stand before Poynter, started to cry in the
public gallery.
Shortly after Poynter's comment, Justice Graham Panckhurst,
chairman of the inquiry, asked commission lawyer James Wilding to give the
witness a moment to compose himself.
The inspector then asked for a break and stepped down from
the stand.
As he was walking through the public gallery, out of the
courtroom, some family members shook his hand and patted him on the back in
support.
Honesty Coming Out
Earlier today Bernie Monk, spokesman for some of the
families, said he was pleased at the amount of "honesty" that was
coming out at the inquiry.
Miners' family members were in tears as Poynter struggled on
the stand, apologising for not being able to provide an answer about methane
systems in the mine.
"I am sorry. I'm just having a bit of a mental
block," he said, after an hour in the witness box today during the royal
commission into the Pike River tragedy today.
Yesterday, Firmin, was in tears before he took the stand for
a second day at the inquiry.
Some of the victims' family members, seated in the public
gallery, broke down this morning as they listened to Poynter's evidence.
The first anniversary of the tragedy is on Saturday and
family members who lost loved ones in the explosion were noticeably distressed
in court.
Two women were holding one another and crying while Poynter
faced tough questions about his handling of Pike River's health and safety
systems.
Fluctuating methane levels in the mine had also been
discussed this morning.
Australian Standards Higher
Mines inspectors in Australia had a "much better
picture of what's happening" underground than in New Zealand, Poynter
said.
Poynter now inspects mines in Queensland.
He said underground gassy mines in Queensland were inspected
on a monthly basis and mines inspectors were supported by a "myriad"
of experts, such as electrical and mechanical inspectors who help monitor the
mine.
"We have a much better picture of what's
happening," he told the court on day three of the third phase of royal
commission inquiry.
The inquiry has heard inspections of Pike River coal mine
before the explosion usually occurred every three months, but yesterday Poynter
admitted he made only one underground inspection of the mine in 2009.
He became the mine's main inspector in July 2008
and conducted seven formal underground inspections in two years. Each
inspection lasted three to four hours, he said.
His final formal inspection was on November 2, 17 days
before the explosion.
During that visit he said he believed a second walk-out exit
was crucial for the mine's safety before it started hydro-mining.
He also discussed the mine's performance with the mine's
deputy, Peter O'Neill, who was killed in the blast.
"I asked him if there was anything I should be aware of
or have a look at. He replied things were OK," he said in his written
evidence.
Like Firmin, the sole underground mine inspector in New
Zealand who finished his time on the stand yesterday, Poynter said he had not
taken enforcement action against the mine and lacked power to do so in his
first year monitoring it because he was still in training.
In 2009 and 2010, he raised concerns there were only two
mines inspectors for New Zealand and criticised the structure of the
department's mining inspector group.
