Two Arch Coal subsidiaries' mines honored for worker-safety records

Arch Coal said the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute (RMCMI) recently honored the performance of mines owned by two of its subsidiaries.

Thunder Basin Coal Company’s Coal Creek mine and Mountain Coal Company’s West Elk mine won safety awards for low incidences of worker injuries.

“The employees of Coal Creek and West Elk truly deserve this recognition for their unwavering commitment to best-in-class safety practices,” Arch Coal Western Operations President Keith Williams said. “We thank our employees for their ongoing efforts and commend their sharp focus on operating safe and productive mining complexes.”

Coal Creek mine won the RMCMI 2015 Safety Award in the small-surface-mines category for its perfect safety record. This is the mine's third year winning an RMCMI Safety Award, as the mine hasn’t had a reportable incident in over two years. In 2015, employees worked 310,145 hours without any lost-time incidents, a significant deviation from the national surface coal-mine average of nearly one incident per 200,000 employee-hours.

West Elk won the RMCMI 2015 Safety Award for large underground mines, with a lost-time incident rate of zero over 781,726 employee-hours, compared with the national underground-mine average of 3.29 incidents per 200,000 employee-hours.

Both companies also managed to maintain perfect environmental records throughout the year.