At around 3:30 pm Friday 19th November 2010, yesterday afternoon, there was an underground explosion at the Pike River coal mine which trapped 27 miners.
The Pike River coal mine is a relatively new underground mine which has been developed in the last 10 years in the Paparoa Ranges. The site was first accessed by road in mid-2006 with the major building works at the pithead completed a year later. In mid 2008 the two year construction of the 2.3 km underground tunnel to reach the coal seam was completed. A 108 metre ventilation shaft was completed in January 2009. One year later the first shipment of coal was made through the Port of Lyttelton. Coal mined at Pike River is transported to the surface using a slurry system. It is dewatered and crushed to uniform size at a coal preparation plant and then taken by truck for a 22 km trip to Ikamatua, where it is loaded into hopper rail wagons. Trains of 30 wagons transport the coal through the Southern Alps to the Port of Lyttelton for shipping.
Whilst the mine disaster is an ongoing matter I am posting maps on this site that shows where the mine is. I drew this map in the NZ Rail Maps map of the Stillwater-Westport Line which includes Ikamatua.
View Larger Map | View Larger Map |
| This map shows the mine location in the Paparoa Ranges. The pithead or mine entrance is marked by the right i. The left i shows roughly where the mine itself starts while the line in between represents the underground access tunnel. | Here on the left we can see the pithead (i) with the road coming in from the right. The black line shows the visible road only. The road continues from the end of the black line but it is hidden in the bush and is not able to be traced accurately. |
View Larger Map | View Larger Map |
| Continuing down the access road which I understand follows the Pike Stream (or River, hence the name), it curves around to cross over Big River and then heads down the valley of this river to the coal processing plant. The approximate location being shown by the letter i. The coal reaches this location by a slurry pipeline running alongside the road. | The mine's coal is trucked down Logburn Road to Atarau Road the intersection of which can be seen at the bottom of the map, you can also see the Grey River at lower right. |
View Larger Map | View Larger Map |
| The Atarau Road heads north-east to Ikamatua via the west bank of the Grey River. Here we can see the bridges crossing the Otututu River and Mawheraiti (Little Grey) River on the outskirts of Ikamatua. | The coal trucks go into the coal loading site where a conveyor carries coal onto rail wagons. The blue line is the rail siding. |
View Larger Map | View Larger Map |
| Loaded coal trains head south-west from Ikamatua to Stillwater on the Stillwater-Ngakawau Line. | At Stillwater the trains change onto the Midland Line and head east through the Southern Alps. |
View Larger Map | View Larger Map |
| At Rolleston the trains change to the Main South Line. | From Rolleston the trains go north-east to Christchurch. |
View Larger Map | View Larger Map |
| Passing the Middleton marshalling yards near the city centre, the coal heads east through the Port Hills to Lyttelton. | At Lyttelton, coal is stockpiled in the area shown by the star at the top of the picture. The coal is moved by conveyor to the collier wharf at lower left. |
