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.

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.

Police hope to cap the vent shaft at Pike River mine tomorrow after weather conditions at the site prevented the operation from going ahead today.

The majority of miners remaining at Pike River Coal mine look set to lose their jobs, as officials today told workers they were going to proceed with redundancies three weeks after a series of explosions killed 29 workers inside the mine.

An operation has begun to extinguish the fire coming from the vent shaft of the Pike River mine and cool the surrounding concrete pad, using water pumped up from a nearby creek.