The receiver of the Pike River Coal mine on NZ’s west coast says the company’s main asset is now its insurance policy, but any settlement with the insurer will probably be “considerably less” than its $NZ100 million ($77.5 million) limit.

Receiver John Fisk of PricewaterhouseCoopers says it could take six months or more to sort out the business interruption claim for the underground mine, where 29 men died in a series of gas explosions that began on November 19.

Media reports say the arrangement Pike River Coal signed with the NZ Government in 2004 required the company to have $NZ15 million ($11.6 million) in public liability cover, $NZ1.58 million ($1.22 million) for industrial and special risks and $NZ2.248 million ($1.73 million) for contingency pollution.

Craigs Investment Partners analyst Peter McIntyre told NZ media the business interruption cover payout will probably be about $NZ60 million ($46.5 million), with about half going to major shareholder NZ Oil and Gas, which is owed about $NZ64 million ($49.6 million). The National Australia Bank-owned Bank of New Zealand is owed about $NZ23 million ($17.8 million) in loans, and local contractors are owed about $NZ10 million ($7.7 million).

An inquest into the mine explosion began in Greymouth last week, with police presenting expert evidence that the 29 miners were likely to have died minutes after the first methane explosion.

Superintendent Gary Knowles says gases present in the mine after the blast were similar in their effects to cyanide, and would have caused an immediate lack of consciousness and death within three to five minutes.

“The chances they would have lived would have been nil,” he said.