All 28 miners evacuated from mine

All 28 miners trapped in a gold mine near Waihi earlier today are now out.

The final 15 were evacuated from the Newmont Waihi Gold's Trio mine a short time ago.

The incident happened at Newmont Waihi Gold's Trio underground mine.

After a truck engine caught fire at 5am all made it to refuge chambers and reported they were safe by phone.

The mine's general operations manager Glen Grindlay says one miner has been treated for smoke inhalation, but they're all otherwise well.

"We do not yet know what triggered the fire, it started on an underground truck."

Mr Grindlay says he's not sure when they'll be able to resume operations at the mine.

Underground mine manager Charlie Garwith, says the one who suffered smoke inhalation is now fine.

"He's absolutely fine, we got him to the local medical centre and he's been given a clean bill of health."

Mr Garwith says they don't yet know what sparked the fire - and at the moment can't get to the truck to investigate.

"The potential for the truck to continue to burn or to re-ignite is still there and (at) bare minimum we'll give this 24 hours exclusion simply because of the tyres - those tyres if they're burning or they're hot they can explode."

Minister of Energy Phil Heatley says the mine's owners and the mines inspectorate immediate concern is to get the mine stabilised.

"I understand that once that has all been sorted out there will be a report and review done on exactly what happened and that will go to Minister Wilkinson."

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union assistant national secretary Ged O'Connell says the miners need to be given a bit of time.

"They need to spend some time with their families this evening and maybe for the next couple of days because they'll be thinking about their working life now having had this experience."

Mr O'Connell says some miners will no doubt be very much affected by the incident.

Photo: NZ Herald