NZ in mourning

The second last week of November saw tragedy descend on the normally idyllic West Coast region of New Zealand’s South Island, where an underground explosion killed 29 miners at the Pike River coking coal mine, located halfway between Greymouth and Reefton.

• The first of two explosions happened on Nov. 19 at 3:50 p.m. local time. It trapped 29 miners underground at least 2.5 km from the portal, but still allowed two dazed men working in a different area from the others to escape to surface.

There was no contact from the trapped miners after 4:15 p.m., and the blast had disabled the mine’s electrical-power and ventilation systems. Surface crews soon started drilling a 15-cm-wide hole that intercepted the mine workings 150 metres below surface several days later, and allowed for a sampling of the air quality, which was very poor. A camera-equipped scout robot sent into the workings over the weekend found only a helmet with its light still on, before breaking down 550 metres into the tunnel when water caused a short-circuit. A second army robot was sent in later.

The joyous rescue of 33 miners from deep within a copper-gold mine in Chile in October somewhat raised expectations that these kinds of rescue successes could become the norm, but an explosion-damaged coal mine is an entirely different — and far deadlier — beast, with a multitude of hazards: highly explosive, odourless and invisible methane gas constantly oozing out of the rock into the workings; noxious carbon monoxide similarly building up; a lack of oxygen in the air owing to it having been consumed in the explosion or actively eaten by ongoing fires; highly explosive coal dust permeating the air; and brittle mine workings everywhere ready to cave in. In these situations, an explosion can be triggered by something as simple as an electrical switch being flipped or a spark coming off a hammer hitting a belt buckle.

The second, even-more-powerful explosion in the Pike River workings on Nov. 24 lasted 30 seconds and extinguished any hopes of the miners’ survival. The dead included 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African.

This second explosion showed the wisdom in not having rescuers rush into the unsafe workings, as was the case at the Crandall Canyon coal mine explosion in Utah in 2007, when three members of a rescue team were killed and six more were injured by a rock burst while they were reopening a tunnel through hundreds of metres of rubble to reach six miners trapped 5.5 km from a portal.

The Pike River death toll exceeds the 25 coal miners killed in a similar explosion in April at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W. Va., which was the worst U.S. mine disaster in more than two decades.

The infamous 1992 Westray coal mine explosion in Plymouth, N.S., claimed 26 lives, and ranks as Canada’s worst mine disaster of the last few decades.

With New Zealand having a population of only 4.4 million, this accident hits hard on the national psyche. Prime Minister John Key said it’s a “national tragedy” and that “to lose this many brothers at once is an agonizing blow.”

• It was another wild week for M&A activity: German fertilizer giant K+S Aktiengesellschaft offered $434 million in a friendly bid for Canadian potash developer Potash One; Eike Batista’s privately held EBX launched a hostile bid for junior Ventana Gold and its exciting gold prospects in Colombia; Florida-based coal producer Walter Energy may merge with Vancouver-based Western Coal in a friendly deal that values the latter at $3.3 billion; and Belgian zinc giant Nyrstar is offering $409 million for emerging polymetallic producer Farallon Mining and its Mexican mining and exploration assets.

• The Canada Revenue Agency penalized mining mogul Frank Giustra’s private, charitable Radcliffe foundation $147,000 for ignoring investment rules governing charities that limit corporate holdings. According to The Globe and Mail, it’s only the second charity to have ever been penalized under rules introduced in 2007, and was meted out because Radcliffe and other entities controlled by Giustra held 48.8% of Sky Ridge Resources, which put them well over the legal limit of 20%.

On the philanthropy side, Giustra is best known for his pairing up in recent years with former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the high-profile pledging of US$100 million to the charitable William J. Clinton Foundation.

The Globe also reported that the Canadian government recently granted the Clinton Foundation the highly unusual ability to issue tax receipts to Canadian donors and to receive grants from Canadian charities even though it is an American outfit.

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