“Outstanding results at Farmersburg and Gateway helped Peabody achieve the best global safety performance in our 126-year history,” said Peabody President and Chief Commercial Officer Richard Navarre. “We improved our global safety rate more than 20%, and the past three years have been our safest. I applaud our team around the world for continuing to move closer to our goal of zero incidents of any kind.”
The Farmersburg mine was recognized for completing the year with zero reportable incidents, and has earned President’s Award honors for the past two years. This compares to the U.S. average for surface coal mines of 1.93 incidents per 200,000 hours worked in 2009, according to preliminary data. Farmersburg has a tradition of safety excellence, having operated for almost three years without an incident. In 2007, Farmersburg earned U.S. Department of Labor Sentinels of Safety honors as the safest large U.S. coal mine, the industry’s highest safety honor. Located near Pimento, Ind., Farmersburg produced about 3.5 million tons of coal in 2009.
The Gateway mine achieved a 1.05 incidence rate, the best underground safety record in the company’s history, compared to the 2009 industry average of 5.91 for peers. Located in Randolph County near Coulterville, Ill., the mine shipped approximately 3.2 million tons of coal in 2009.
Three other Peabody operations achieved zero incidents in 2009: the Cottage Grove operation in Illinois; the Miller Creek mine in Indiana; and the Lee Ranch mine in New Mexico.
