the Crown Minerals Act, there have been proposals to allow some mining within the park's borders. On 22 March 2010, Gerry Brownlee (Minister of Energy and Resources) and Kate Wilkinson (Minister of Conservation) released a discussion paper including a proposal to remove 7,058 hectares of land from Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act 1991, including the Inangahua sector of Paparoa National Park. The area of the Inangahua sector included in this proposal was 3,315 hectares, or 8 per cent of the park. The proposed change would remove the prohibition on mining for the area concerned. On 26 March 2010, a spokesman for Gerry Brownlee said that opencast mining in Paparoa National Park could not be ruled out. On 20 July 2010, in a joint statement by Brownlee and Wilkinson, the Government announced that it had received 37,552 submissions on its discussion paper, and that it had decided not to remove any land from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act for the purposes of further mineral exploration or extraction. Ms Wilkinson said the government had agreed to continue with its proposal to add 14 areas with a total of 12,400 hectares of land to Schedule 4, including 240 hectares of Paparoa National Park (the northwest addition). Enlargement of the National Park Following the liquidation of Pike River Coal, Solid Energy purchased the assets of the company. The government then purchased the 3580 ha of land around the Pike River Mine. The environment minister, Nick Smith, announced on 15 November 2015 that the 3,580 ha of land was to be added to the Park. Paparoa Track and Pike29 Memorial Track A walkway, the Paparoa Track from Blackball to Punakaiki and the Pike29 Memorial Track were constructed through the park as a memorial to the 29 miners lost in the 2010 Pike River Mine disaster. Most of the families of the victims approved, but there has been some criticism because Solid Energy decided in 2014 that it was too risky to re-enter the mine to recover any remains from the mine. The formation of the Paparoa Track has been a catalyst for the emerging adventure sports community on the West Coast with events such as The Paparoa which features trail running and mountain biking over the track. The event is based around the regions mining history and also celebrates the number of exceptional female adventure athletes the region has produced such