West Elk Mine wins safety awards

Arch Coal, Inc. has announced that employees in Colorado recently earned statewide safety and environmental awards. On Feb. 26 and 27, Mountain Coal Company's West Elk Mine in Colorado earned two state awards for safety and environmental excellence.

"Safety and responsibility are deep-rooted values at Arch, and these external recognitions highlight our employees' dedication and leadership," said John W. Eaves, Arch's president and chief executive officer. "Thanks to the hard work of our employees, Arch has led our major, diversified peers in safety for seven consecutive years."

The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety presented the 2012 Excellence in Safety Award on Feb. 27 to West Elk Mine, the state's leader in safety among large underground coal mines. This marks the fourth consecutive year that West Elk has been recognized as Colorado's safest underground coal mine.

West Elk's 350 employees have worked more than 580,000 employee-hours and produced 4.9 million tons of low-sulfur coal without incurring a single reportable injury, as classified by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.

West Elk was honored on Feb. 26 by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) as a Senior Participant with Special Recognition for Environmental Stewardship and Pollution Prevention. The award recognized the mine's exemplary community outreach efforts. The mine donated nearly 1,000 air monitoring tubes for local university education and training, provided used conveyor belting for fairgrounds walkways and livestock pens and donated soda lime to reduce E. coli bacteria in livestock sheds. West Elk also was praised for investing more than $2.2 million to drain, reclaim and establish sediment control on an area adjacent to the mine facility. West Elk has operated for more than 13 years with perfect SMCRA environmental compliance.

• < Prev
• Next >