The Eagle Butte operation in Gillette has marked two years without a lost-time incident, producing almost 44 million tons of coal with more than 1 million hours logged.

Also in Gillette, Alpha’s Belle Ayr reached the one-year mark without a lost-time accident. Staff worked more than 770,000 hours and produced more than 28Mt in that time.

"Our employees are dedicated to ‘Running Right’ and doing their jobs safely and efficiently,” the company’s Northern Appalachia and Powder River Basin senior vice-president Jim Bryja said of the staff’s safety program.

“These outstanding milestones demonstrate their safety commitment."

Alpha Natural Resources closed its acquisition of PRB and Appalachia-focused Foundation Coal in August, at which time all Foundation properties became assets of what is now the third-largest producer in the US behind Arch Coal and Peabody Energy.

Alpha now has more than 60 mines and 14 preparation facilities, controls more than 2.3 billion tons of reserves and maintains a very large foothold in the US coalfields, including the Powder River Basin region.