Five mine staff sought

11 April 2018

The Pike River Recovery Agency has today started advertising for five new mine staff to assist in managing and running the Pike River mine site.

Chief Operating Officer Dinghy Pattinson says the appointment of these five roles will complete the Agency’s mining statutory roles.

The agency was established this year to develop a plan for safe manned re-entry to the mine drift; to provide advice to the Minister on whether that could be safely achieved; to oversee the implementation of that plan if the Minister makes a decision to proceed on the strength of that advice; and importantly, to try and find out what happened to create the explosion which killed 29 men, and to recover any bodies in the drift.

“We need people who are able to quickly build strong working relationships based on trust and transparency to manage, contribute to and complete operational elements of the Pike River Re-entry work programme. These are fixed term roles based in Greymouth through to June 2019,” Mr Pattinson says.

The roles include:

• Mine Underviewer/Health & Safety Manager

• Electrical Superintendent/Mine Gas Technician

• Control Room Operator/Mine Worker

• Mine Deputy/Mine Worker

• Senior Mine Assistant/Mechanical Superintendent

“It’s probably a bit unusual to have all these jobs out there at once, and some of them are joint roles. We’re a new agency and we’ve got a lot to do to plan the safe manned re-entry of the mine. The people in these positions are going to be vital to making sure we’re running a modern, up-to-date and compliant mine site, in the knowledge that our role here is not actually mining, it’s recovery of the drift and supporting any forensic work that needs to happen alongside.”

The positions are being advertised on the Ministry of Business, Innnovation and Employment website, and people can contact Mr Pattinson with any questions at the Agency, +64 (3) 966 9222 or email dinghy.pattinson@pikeriverrecovery.govt.nz. The positions close on Sunday 22 April at 5pm.

ends

© Scoop Media