On March 7 and 8, Arch won eight prestigious safety and environmental awards in West Virginia, including five West Virginia Mountaineer Guardian Awards for exemplary safety records in 2012.

Included in those honors were the Mingo Logan Mountain Laurel Mountaineer II mine and Cardinal preparation plant as well as Coal-Mac's Holden 22 mine and preparation plant and Wolf Run's Sentinel preparation plant.

Also, three Arch operations received environmental awards from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Its Coal-Mac complex received the National Wild Turkey Federation award while the Wolf Run mine earned an award for innovative reclamation of its Reed Hollow refuse area.

Mountain Laurel also earned statewide praise for developing an automated water treatment system at the Monclo permit area.

Additionally, in late February, Mountain Coal Company's West Elk mine in Colorado earned two state awards for excellence in safety and environmental – considered one of the state’s top awards.

The Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety presented Arch’s West Elk crews with the 2012 Excellence in Safety Award on February 27. It is the fourth straight year West Elk has been recognized as Colorado's safest underground coal mine.

The 350 West Elk employees earned the award by working more than 580,000 employee hours and producing about 4.9 million tons of coal without a single reportable injury.

Finally, West Elk was honored February 26 by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment as a senior participant with special recognition for the agency’s environmental stewardship and pollution prevention initiative.

The award was given to the complex for its exemplary community outreach efforts. Crews donated nearly 1000 air monitoring tubes for local university education and training and also provided used conveyor belting for fairgrounds' walkways and livestock pens. The mine donated soda lime to reduce E coli bacteria in livestock sheds as well.

West Elk also was also given praise for its $2.2 million investment in an area adjacent to the facility. It worked to drain, reclaim and establish sediment control there.

West Elk has operated for more than 13 years with perfect SMCRA environmental compliance.

“Safety and responsibility are deep-rooted values at Arch, and these external recognitions highlight our employees' dedication and leadership," Arch president and chief executive officer John Eaves said.

“Thanks to the hard work of our employees, Arch has led our major, diversified peers in safety for seven consecutive years.”