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Peabody Energy's Big Sky Mine in Montana and Federal No. 2 Mine in West Virginia have earned Peabody President's Awards for operating the company's safest surface and underground mines in 2002.

Big Sky Mine reported a perfect record of 0.00 incidents - a year with no accidents requiring medical attention or lost work time. This compares to the 2002 national average for surface coal mines of 3.14 incidents per 200,000 hours worked. Big Sky Mine has consistently achieved outstanding safety performance and has completed more than seven years without a lost-time accident. The mine has about 70 employees and annually ships about 1.9 million tons of coal. Peabody's Rawhide Mine also reported 0.00 incidents in 2002.

Federal No. 2 Mine reported an accident rate of 3.80, which was 62 percent better than the 2002 national average for underground coal mines. Federal No. 2 Mine has approximately 460 employees and annually ships approximately 5 million tons of steam and metallurgical coal.

"Safety is the number one priority at our operations," said David A. Beerbower, Peabody's vice president of safety. "Out ultimate goal is zero accidents, which we achieved at two of our locations."

Peabody's Safety - A Way of Life program emphasizes making safety a personal goal throughout all aspects of daily life, both at work and at home. Since 1990, Peabody's accident rate has improved 66 percent while productivity has nearly tripled.

Peabody's surface and underground operations with the best safety performance for 2002 include:

   Surface                            Underground
   Big Sky Mine, Mont.      0.00      Federal No. 2, W.Va.          3.80
   Rawhide Mine, Wyo.       0.00      Lightfoot No. 2, W.Va.        6.38
   Seneca Mine, Colo.       0.87      Harris No. 1, Ky.             6.53
   Kayenta Mine, Ariz.      1.41      Big Mountain No. 16, W.Va.    8.36
   Black Mesa Mine, Ariz.   1.43

Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2002 sales of 198 million tons of coal and $2.7 billion in revenues. Its coal products fuel more than 9 percent of all U.S. electricity generation and more than 2 percent of worldwide electricity generation.

CONTACT: Beth Sutton of Peabody Energy, +1-928-525-3168

SOURCE: Peabody Energy