A bungled blasting operation has sent a slip into a creek at Solid Energy's Strongman opencast mine near Greymouth.
Solid Energy said the slip occurred on Sunday night and blamed a "non-standard" blast by its contractor.
The blast had sent a "significant amount of soil, gravel and vegetation" into the
Doherty Creek upper catchment.
The slip occurred while the contractor was working to remove fuel from a long-running underground fire at Strongman.
West Coast Regional Council senior compliance staff visited the site on Tuesday.
Solid Energy and the contractor were working on a plan to deal with the damage, Solid Energy said.