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Powder River Coal Company's North Antelope Rochelle Mine has received the prestigious Sentinels of Safety Award from the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration for operating the nation's safest large surface coal mine in 2003.

Employees at the North Antelope Rochelle Mine operated 1.6 million hours in 2003 without an incident causing an employee to miss work, setting a record for a U.S. surface mine. Since December of 2002, employees have worked more than 635 days and more than 2.6 million hours without a lost-time incident. The North Antelope Rochelle Mine also was recognized with the Safe SAM Award from the Wyoming State Mine Inspector's Office for operating the state's safest coal mine in 2003.

"Managing safe, low-cost operations is our number one strategy," said Powder River Basin Group Executive Kemal Williamson. "This milestone reflects our major commitment to achieve industry-leading safety performance and reach our vision of operating safe workplaces that are incident free."

The North Antelope Rochelle Mine is the largest mine in North America and is also among the nation's four most productive. Last year the mine shipped an industry record 80.1 million tons of coal.

The North Antelope Rochelle Mine accepted the award today at a ceremony in Las Vegas. The Sentinels of Safety Award is the oldest safety award in the mining industry and is presented to mine operations that achieve the greatest number of employee work hours each year without an injury that results in a lost workday.

Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2003 sales of 203 million tons and $2.8 billion in revenues. Its coal products fuel more than 10 percent of all U.S. electricity and more than 2.5 percent of worldwide electricity.

   CONTACT:
   Beth Sutton
   (314) 342-7798

SOURCE: Peabody Energy