ST. LOUIS, Nov. 14 – Employees at Peabody Energy’s Cottage Grove Mine in Southern Illinois reached a safety milestone, achieving more than 1 million operating hours without a reportable incident. 

“I’m proud of the Cottage Grove team for their tremendous commitment to safety and teamwork,” said Peabody President – Americas Kemal Williamson. “Safety is a core value, part of our mission and a way of life for all of us at Peabody. We know that we cannot be complacent. Our employees continue to demonstrate safety excellence and leadership toward our vision of zero incidents of any kind.” 

Cottage Grove has operated free of a reportable incident for more than 800 days, producing more than 4.4 million tons of coal in that time. The mine’s year-to-date incidence rate of 0.0 compares to a 3.17 incidence rate per 200,000 hours worked among U.S. mines, based on the latest data. Cottage Grove shipped 2.1 million tons of coal in 2012 to electricity generating customers. Cottage Grove also earned the company’s President’s Safety Award for achieving the best 2012 U.S. safety performance for a Peabody surface operation. 

Two other Peabody operations – the Bear Run Mine in Indiana and the Kayenta Mine in Arizona – marked 1-million-hour milestones earlier in 2013 – Bear Run operating free of a reportable incident and Kayenta operating free of an incident requiring an employee to miss work. Through the third quarter of 2013, six Peabody U.S. operations have operated for the past six months without a reportable incident.

Peabody Energy is the world’s largest private-sector coal company and a global leader in sustainable mining and clean coal solutions. The company serves metallurgical and thermal coal customers in more than 25 countries on six continents. For further information, go to PeabodyEnergy.com and CoalCanDoThat.com. 

CONTACT: 
Meg Gallagher 
(314) 342-4351