Charges laid over New Zealand mine disaster

New Zealand authorities investigating a colliery explosion that killed 29 miners last year charged three unnamed parties Thursday with health and safety failures.
 
The Department of Labour said the three accused, whose names were suppressed for legal reasons, faced 25 charges arising from the November 19 blast that tore through the Pike River mine on the South Island's rugged west coast.
 
The explosion, and a series of subsequent underground blasts in the pit, were triggered by a build up of methane, resulting in New Zealand's worst mining disaster for almost a century.
 
The department said each of the charges laid after an investigation that lasted almost 12 months carried a maximum penalty of NZ$250,000 ($195,000).
 
It said it could not release details of the charges as that could reveal the identities of the accused.
 
"The department recognises there is high public interest in who has been charged and is taking urgent steps to ensure that, where possible, names of the parties charged can be published," it said in a statement.
 
The disaster claimed the lives of 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two Britons and a South African.
 
Their remains are still entombed about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) into the colliery, with recovery teams so far unable to reach them because of fears volatile gases remain in the mine shaft.
 
A Royal Commission - the most powerful inquiry available under New Zealand law - is conducting a separate investigation into the disaster.