Families want extra 3 months of funding

PIKE RIVER

AS the $51 million Pike River Mine reentry project reaches an end, the families group has appealed for another three months of taxpayer funding.

The Pike River Recovery Agency announced on Thursday it had reached the rockfall at the end of the drift tunnel leading into the mine. It can go no further.

The mine workings where the 29 bodies are trapped are located behind the massive rockfall.

The recovery agency underground team will now back up and further inspect the area known as ‘‘pit bottom in stone’’ to retrieve possible evidence for the police.

Families group spokeswoman Anna Osborne, of Ngahere, said it was a massive job but the budget was nonexistent.

Having spent so much, there was no point stopping now and doing ‘‘half a job’’, she said. ‘‘Don’t give up on us.’’

Mrs Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the 2010 explosion, said in a video the team needed ‘‘at least three months’’ to allow the police to do their work as families still did not know what had caused the disaster.

‘‘Justice will be served.’’

The Greymouth Star reported last month the recovery agency was ‘‘considering budget options’’ with a possible formal request for more Government money.

The ‘‘recovery’’ project — which was never about the recovery of the 29 men, only possible evidence — was initially granted $23 million, which was increased to $36 million and then $51 million after which the Government said it would not be putting any more money into the effort. — Greymouth Star