The GAG inertisation unit was continuing to operate this morning and is planned to run until Air Liquide’s nitrogen generator arrives onsite, expected around Sunday.

A smaller mobile version of the Floxal Coal Mine AMSA Unit, this inertisation equipment will also help cool down the extreme temperatures in the troubled mine.

This second unit will let the GAG unit receive overdue maintenance as it enters its 12th day of continuous operation.

“The sooner the Floxal is installed, the sooner the conditions in the mine will stabilise,” Pike River chief executive officer Peter Whittall said yesterday.

While the metal cap on the ventilation shaft further seals the mine to allow the GAG unit to run more effectively, a New Zealand Police spokeswoman told ILN the gas readings so far were “nothing spectacularly different” at this stage.

Recovery teams might not be able to enter the mine for several weeks.

The families of the 29 miners who died in the Pike River disaster want the bodies recovered, but the coal fire and the series of explosions would have destroyed forensic evidence and could leave little remains of the men.