New Zealand to send body-recovery team into death mine

Body-recovery specialists will enter a New Zealand mine where 29 men died in a 2010 explosion, officials said Wednesday after years of heated debate about retrieving the workers' remains.

The blast at the Pike River colliery in November 2010 was New Zealand's worst mining disaster in almost a century, killing 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African.

It was triggered by a build-up of methane and the South Island mine was permanently closed amid fears the flammable gas remained, angering the families of the dead who wanted the entombed remains removed.

The controversy was so intense that when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was elected last year she appointed Andrew Little to the specially created portfolio of Minister for Pike River Re-entry.

Little announced Wednesday that a plan to go into the mine had been finalised after consultation with mining safety experts from around the world.

"To the Pike River families -- and to New Zealand -- we are returning," he said, revealing re-entry would take place in February next year and continue until December.

Little said the aim was to not only recover any remains but also try to determine the cause of the deadly explosion.

He said the safety of those entering the mine would be paramount.

"There is a lot that we do not know and will not know until we confront it underground," he said.

"This will require agile thinking, the courage of all to say no if we are uncomfortable... and knowing when to call it quits." Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the disaster, said it had been a long journey.

"We've waited eight long years for this, we stood up for our men and we have achieved something they would be so proud of," she said.