The long-term coal supply agreement announced this week resulted from Tuscon’s development of a new coal-fuelled generation unit to serve growing energy needs in the Southwest.

The coal will be supplied from the Lee Ranch and North Antelope Rochelle surface mines. The agreements extend a current Lee Ranch Mine contract to 2020, a decade beyond the existing arrangement. A new 15-year agreement with the North Antelope Rochelle Mine will supply the generating station with ultra low sulfur coal. Shipments will begin based on the customer's requirements.

Located in eastern Arizona, the Springerville Generating Station has two 380-megawatt coal-fuelled generating units and plans to break ground for another 400-megawatt unit this year.

A record 75.4 million tons of coal was shipped from the North Antelope Rochelle operation, the nation's largest coalmine.

The Lee Ranch mine, located near the town of Grants, shipped 6.2 million tons last year, recovering coal from 26 seams that lace a 170-million-ton reserve from the San Juan Basin.

In other Peabody news, the company announced this week that the board of directors had reconstituted its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

The committee consists of chairperson Blanche Touhill, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Missouri - St. Louis; Robert Karn, Former Managing Partner of Arthur Andersen Financial & Consulting in St. Louis; and William Rusnack, former President and Chief Executive Officer of Premcor Inc.