Peabody Energy's Eaglefield, Wambo Underground And Burton Mines Earn President's Safety Awards For Top Performance In Australia

ST. LOUIS, March 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Peabody Energy today announced that its Eaglefield, Wambo underground and Burton mines have earned President's Safety Awards for achieving the company's best Australian safety performance based on incidence rate in 2012. These operations helped drive the best safety results in Peabody's 130-year history.

Eaglefield Mine employees received the honour for operating as the safest open-cut operation, achieving zero reportable incidents for the third consecutive calendar year. The mine has operated incident-free for more than 41 months. Eaglefield is located at the northern end of the Bowen Basin in Queensland and employs approximately 220 people.

The Wambo Mine received the honour for safest underground operation, in part by reducing its incident rate 38 percent year-over-year. The mine is located in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and has a workforce of 250.

Employees at the Burton Mine received the most improved safety performance award based on an injury rate reduction of 50 percent from 2011. Burton is located at the northern end of the Bowen Basin in Queensland, and provides employment for approximately 610 people.

The President's Award for Safety is Peabody's highest safety honor for its Australia platform. For 2012, Peabody's Australian platform achieved an incidence rate of 2.50, which is a 9 percent improvement from the prior year.

"These three mines have set a high standard for excellence in safety in Australia," said Peabody Energy – Australia President Charles Meintjes. "I'm proud of our employees for making safety a way of life and working toward our global safety vision of zero incidents of any kind."

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.

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Michelle Barisic
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SOURCE Peabody Energy