Emotional karakia for mining ‘brother’
Miners across the world, friends and Waihi residents are banding together to pay tribute to Tipiwai Stainton who died in a mining accident.
The 29-year-old man was driving a 50-tonne loader in the underground OceanaGold Waihi mine on Thursday night when it rolled.
The mine was shut down immediately. Police said rescuers were unable to save Stainton.
Flowers have been placed at the entrance to the mine and scattered on trees around the beach town, which has a population of 4700. Tributes have also been left online.
‘‘We all go underground as brothers ... it hurts when a brother is missing and not standing with us on the surface,’’ a colleague wrote on social media.
Hundreds in mining communities across the world have changed their Facebook profile picture to a picture tribute of a shovel, a pickaxe and a mining helmet, with the words, ‘‘In memory of our fallen miners’’.
A kaumatua performed an emotional karakia on the front-end loader and a separate karakia for the mine yesterday morning, OceanaGold Waihi senior community adviser Kit Wilson said.
The mood of the mine’s 300 staff was sombre, he said.
‘‘We have been inundated with messages of support, which makes this unbearable matter a little easier to bear,’’ Wilson said.
It was the first death in OceanaGold’s 25 years of operating in New Zealand, but was not the first at the Waihi mine.
The mine was bought from Newmont Mining in 2015.
The loader remains covered underground while police and WorkSafe New Zealand conduct investigations, but it would be retrieved and moved out of the mine as soon as possible.
It is unknown when the mine, which has been running since 2006, will begin operating again.
Mining union spokesman Myles Leeson said the miners were distressed by the incident.
‘‘They were involved in the ... rescue to assist and retrieve their colleague. It’s a small, tight-knit community and they’re coping with this the best way they can.’’
The loader had gone down a 5-metre by 5-metre tunnel in the mine and tipped after it reached a wider area.
The accident happened about 6.30pm on Thursday. Stainton was alone at the time. An underground mine rescue team carried out a search and he was found in the loader in the early hours of yesterday morning about 2 kilometres into the mine.
Leeson said the union was supporting Stainton’s family and workmates.
The mine’s general manager, Bernie O’Leary, said yesterday that it was too early to speculate about what might have happened.
He confirmed Stainton had been voidfilling, which is backfilling waste rock, about 200 metres below the surface in the 300m-deep mine.
O’Leary didn’t want to be pressed on how the company was alerted to the fatal accident, saying it would come out as ‘‘part of the investigation’’.