A statue of St Barbara, the patron saint of miners, has been mounted near the portal of the Pike River mine.
It is a gift from Pike River Re-entry Minister Andrew Little.
Before he was an MP and was a union leader, Andrew noticed when he visited mines on the Coast that there was always an icon of St Barbara near the entrances.
He presented the statue on May 3, 2019 when re-entry of the mine was planned and then abandoned because of the oxygen levels.
“There has long been a link between Catholicism and mining communities on the West Coast,” Little said.
Access information on the presentation of the statue