This video says about itself:
SO-CALLED BEST PRACTICES WAS MENTIONED BY PIKE RIVER MINE CEO PETER WHITTALL – 29 PEOPLE TRAPPED – I THINK DENNIS O’DELL, USA MINING EXPERT IS CORRECT. PIKE RIVER MINE CEO PETER WHITTALL SAYS “BEST PRACTICES” AS WELL AS LOOKING AT LEGISLATION. BUT WHAT BEST PRACTICES??? WORLD MUST KNOW ABOUT NEW ZEALAND’S MINING SAFETY STANDARD.
New Zealand: One week after the initial explosion at the Pike River Coal Mine, mining experts, relatives and friends of the 29 dead miners have condemned the company’s unsafe practices and its failure to carry out a rescue operation: here.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced today that a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be held into the Pike River coal mine disaster that claimed 29 workers: here. And here.
Chilean miners update, 28 November 2010: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Doomed site ‘unsafe from the beginning’
* Ean Higgins
* From: The Australian
* November 25, 2010 12:00AM
PRESSURE mounted last night on the New Zealand government to determine the cause of the Pike River coalmine disaster.
There were also renewed claims that the mine had been unsafe and the rescue effort mishandled.
New Zealand Mines Minister Gerry Brownlee yesterday promised action over how the industry was regulated following the two explosions at Pike River.
“There is going to be a range of inquiries that are going to begin immediately,” Mr Brownlee said.
The government and Pike River Coal had come under criticism before yesterday’s catastrophic second blast. Concerns had been expressed about the known high levels of methane generated by the rich coal seams in the mine.
There have also been criticisms that the range of survival equipment within the mine — it had no security cages and no stores of food, fresh water, long-acting self-breathers or emergency lighting — was below the standards of Australian coalmines.
Some local and Australian observers have criticised the fact that, unlike in Australia, where mining companies were in primary charge of dealing with a mine crisis, in New Zealand, the rescue operation was put in the hands of the top police officers in the region.
Yesterday, the Australian general secretary of the mining and energy division of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, Andrew Vickers, was quoted on New Zealand television saying the mining company, in consultation with the unions, should have been in charge.
“They are the only people who know the mine; they are the people with the technical expertise,” Mr Vickers said.
Lawrie Drew, whose son Zen was one of the miners now said to have perished and who has served as an unofficial spokesman for the families, said he wanted a royal commission. Speaking of a “cover-up”, Mr Drew said yesterday: “That mine should never have been opened in the first place.”
He added: “A lot of people do not understand why the police were in control in the beginning.”
The Pike River mine was known to have a high generation of methane. In 2007, Western Exploration geologist Murry Cave said in a report there were a number of risks in the underground site, including a pit bottom with deep, highly gassy coal and the associated risk of “outburst”.
The company has consistently denied that the mine was dangerous, saying gas was present in all coalmines but the ventilation systems were coping with it.
Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall admitted earlier this week that, by definition, the mine was unsafe at the time of the first explosion.
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Trapped miners were owners’ fault
Chile: A congressional commission has found two mine owners responsible for the accident that trapped 33 men half a mile underground for 69 days last year.
The commission’s report, which is expected to help miners’ lawyers pursue lawsuits against the owners, said members unanimously found Alejandro Bohn and Marcelo Kemeny responsible for the collapse that trapped the men in the San Jose mine whose veins of copper and gold had been mined for more than 100 years in poorly reinforced tunnels.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/101795
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