Waihi miners rescued from refuge chambers following a fire in the underground Trio mine on Tuesday were back on the job yesterday.

Workers returned to the mine on Thursday night after nearly three days of disruption caused by a truck fire in the Waihi mine early on Tuesday morning.

Newmont Waihi Gold operations general manager Glen Grindlay said miners spent that first night inspecting for any damage caused by the fire.

"Miners spent last night inspecting for any damage to underground services such as power, water and communications,” he said

Crews also carried out maintenance of underground vehicles.

Mr Grindlay said high hazard unit inspectors and Newmont staff were able to get close to the burnt out truck with thermal imaging equipment, which showed that while the fire was completely out, the truck was still in the process of cooling down from the fire.

While the truck was now cordoned off awaiting forensic investigation, Mr Grindlay said that "some early lessons" from the fire were already starting to filter through.

"One of the things that we discovered quite early on is that some of the guys underground had put down their own mobile phone numbers as being the best way of contacting their families, and that meant that we weren't able to get hold of people as quickly as we would've liked to.

"We'll be working to ensure that everyone working in the mine provides us with current contact details for their families so that we don't have this situation again.”

Mr Grindlay said it would take more than a week to fully investigate the cause of the fire and the extraction of the miners from underground.

- © Fairfax NZ News