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ST. LOUIS, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Peabody Energy announced today it has named Charles A. "Chuck" Burggraf Senior Vice President – Global Safety. 

Burggraf will lead the company's worldwide safety activities and be responsible for strengthening Peabody's already-intense safety program toward the company's vision of zero incidents of any kind.  He will manage a team of safety and compliance professionals across the company's 28 surface and underground operations in the United States and Australia, as well as guide safety efforts as Peabody expands its global reach into Asia.  

Burggraf's responsibilities include auditing, standardizing, implementing and monitoring best practices in safety communications, employee safety training and development, regulatory interface and management of emerging regulatory developments, hazard identification, risk management, compliance and root cause analysis across the global platform.  Burggraf will report to Eric Ford, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.  

Burggraf replaces David A. Beerbower, who is retiring after a 37-year career in the mining industry with 20 of those years at Peabody.

"Safety is a way of life at Peabody, core to our understanding of operational excellence," said Ford.  "Our vision is to achieve zero incidents of any kind, and Peabody's performance – which is significantly better than the peer average and reflects improvement each of the past three years – speaks to our effort.  The past three years have been the safest in Peabody's 127-year history.  Under Chuck's leadership, we will continue to raise the bar."

Most recently, Burggraf served as Senior Vice President – Midwest Operations, managing the company's portfolio of underground and surface mines across Illinois and Indiana. Under his tenure, the company's Midwest workforces have earned numerous national and statewide awards for safety leadership including the U.S. Department of Labor's 2009 Sentinels of Safety Award, the nation's highest safety honor.

Burggraf also led companywide engineering, environmental, safety, operations analysis, process improvement and maintenance activities as Group Vice President – Technical Services.  A registered professional engineer, he has held a variety of senior safety, engineering and mine management positions at the company, including Group Executive – Colorado Operations and Operations Manager of the Twentymile Mine in Colorado. 

Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) is the world's largest private-sector coal company and a global leader in clean coal solutions.  With 2010 sales of 246 million tons and nearly $7 billion in revenues, Peabody fuels 10 percent of U.S. power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.

CONTACT:
Meg Gallagher
(314) 342-7963

SOURCE Peabody Energy