Pike River families and supporters are "heartbroken" the Government's pushing ahead with sealing the mine permanently.
The Government says methane levels are still too high to re-enter.
"I've shared with the family the data on the methane levels in the mine - they come with no surprise, and do not change the firm view that it is unsafe," says Environment Minister Nick Smith.
"For Solid Energy to meet its legal obligations to WorkSafe, they're going to need to complete that work by the 30th of November. To completely decommission the mine is likely to take until February."
The six year anniversary of the tragedy is this Saturday. The bodies of 29 men remain in the mine.
A public meeting was held in Greymouth last night, attended by Dr Smith. His being there in person to deliver the news didn't make it any easier for the families of the victims.
"Nick Smith's come down here to do a job to try and shut things down, and gave us no options but to walk away from this, and told us straight the mine's got to be sealed," says families spokesman Bernie Monk.
"He also told us when DoC actually take the mine over, the likelihood of ever having re-entry down the drift, it'll never, ever happen. I'm really heartbroken that our experts haven't been listened to at all."
"There's plenty of evidence... it can be done safely," Carl Barkley, who was at the meeting, told Newshub.
"It's just Solid Energy and the Government keep using these other figures that say 'no, no, it's totally unacceptable'.
"He's not going to let the families recover their family members or get into the mine. They want to seal it up, or let Solid Energy seal it up so they can hand it over to the Department of Conservation, make a walkway around it and try and make some money out of it."
The first phase of work to seal the mine has already been completed, to stop oxygen getting in and mixing with the methane and creating a flammable mixture. Mr Monk says even after six years, the Government is being too hasty in permanently sealing it off.
"I've been put off by his attitude towards us. You know, we've had this for six years. We've been along these paths before. We've been misled, we've been treated badly."
Newshub.
