Press Releases

Peabody Energy's Viking and Francisco mines in Indiana have earned Peabody President's Awards for operating the company's safest surface and underground mines in 2007.

Viking Mine reported a perfect record of zero incidents. This compares with the 2007 national average for surface coal mines of 2.11 incidents per 200,000 hours worked. Through the first quarter of 2008, employees at Viking Mine had gone four years without a reportable incident. The mine has more than 140 employees and shipped 1.7 million tons of coal in 2007.

Employees at Francisco underground mine reduced their incident rate by half over the past three consecutive years to achieve a 1.09 rate, which was 84 percent better than the 2007 national average for underground coal mines. Francisco has more than 120 employees and shipped approximately 900,000 tons of coal in 2007.

"I congratulate Viking and Francisco underground for serving as examples of what we can accomplish when we collectively share and live out the safety vision of operating safe workplaces that are incident free," said Peabody Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Eric Ford.

The President's Award for Safety was established to recognize excellence in safety toward Peabody's goal of zero incidents and an incident-free workplace.

During the first quarter of 2008, Peabody's U.S. mines achieved a 1.50 incidence rate, the safest in the company's 125-year history, and the company is on track for a record year.

Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2007 sales of 238 million tons and $4.6 billion in revenues. Its coal products fuel approximately 10 percent of all U.S. electricity generation and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.

Use of the words "Peabody," "the company" and "our" relate to Peabody, our subsidiaries and our majority-owned affiliates.

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SOURCE: Peabody Energy