Payouts will be made to the contracting companies that employed the men who died in the massive explosions at the Pike River coal mine, receivers announced today.

Pike River Coal's receivers say it could take up to four months to re-enter the mine in which 29 workers died in an explosion last month. Receivers PricewaterhouseCooper (PWC) today presented a draft plan for re-entry.

The Coronial Inquest into the deaths of 29 men in the Pike River Coal mine will be held early next year, the chief coroner Judge MacLean says.

Families of the men killed in the Pike River mine will be getting immediate financial relief to get them through Christmas.

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Gas readings have been promising at the Pike River Coal mine since an Australian generator began pumping nitrogen into the mine yesterday to help cool the environment inside.

The Pike River mine will not be handed over to receivers while the operation to recover the bodies of the 29 workers continues, police say.

Peter Dunne has defended the timing of the announcement of eight job losses at the IRD in Greymouth.

Families of the 29 miners who died at Pike River Coal mine have been given a chance to spend Christmas near the bodies of their loved ones after police offered to take them to the mine on December 25.

A 20-tonne nitrogen generator has arrived to aid the operation to recover 29 bodies from Pike River Coal mine.

West Coast butcher Peter Lamont will spend a minimum of 14-and-a-half years behind bars after being imprisoned for life for murdering his wife Lindsay in their Ikamatua home last year.

As a new machine arrives to help recovery efforts at Pike River, receivers say they may not be able to claim a full $100m insurance payout to reimburse creditors of Pike River Coal.

Labour Leader Phil Goff has joined calls for the Government to fund the recovery of the bodies of 29 men trapped in the Pike River mine.

A grieving father and spokesman for families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River Coal mine says he's "gutted" for the Pike River workers made redundant after the company went into receivership.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn is calling for Pike River to be made into an opencast coal mine, amid efforts to keep the 114 skilled miners made redundant today on the West Coast.