Employees have operated free of a reportable incident since July 2011. In 2014, the 200-strong Cottage Grove crew worked more than 437,500 hours. The Chairman’s Award for Safety Excellence, created in 2013, recognizes employees at operations who end a calendar year with zero reportable incidents.
“Our goal is for all workers to go home safely each day, and Cottage Grove employees have consistently met that benchmark for 41 months,” said Peabody Energy-Americas President Kemal Williamson.
John Keller, operations manager at Cottage Grove, credited his team’s success to strong camaraderie and a commitment to safety innovation. “The awards bring recognition for what I witness every day amongst our workforce. Our team prides itself on safety both in the workplace, at home, and in our communities,” he said.
Peabody’s Twentymile mine in Colorado earned the President’s Award for achieving the company’s safest U.S. performance for underground operations in 2014. Twentymile achieved a safety record of 1.03 for 2014 with 777,868 hours worked during the year and is being honored for a third consecutive year for outstanding safety performance. Employees at Twentymile helped drive the best global safety results in Peabody’s 132-year history.
Twentymile has received the President’s Award for Safety five times and holds the record for the recognition of outstanding safety performance among Peabody’s underground mines. Previous recognition came for the best underground safety performance in 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2013.
“Twentymile has earned its reputation as the state’s largest coal mine that is perennially among the safest in the industry,” said Williamson. “To consistently achieve results of this caliber, our employees must focus on safety each and every day. Every miner deserves to return home safely at the end of their shift, and I am very proud of their achievement and commitment to safety.”
Pat Sollars, general manager of operations at Twentymile, credited the Colorado team’s success to strong safety values and commitment. “We constantly seek innovative solutions to eliminate risk, and for Twentymile employees, safety is not a statistic; it is a way of life,” Sollars said.
