The company said Wednesday that the operation near Hayden in northwest Colorado had invented and assembled the tool, which uses hydraulics to remove portions of the longwall panel and minimize incident risk, making panel moves safer as well as more efficient for the crew.

The CMA award is given out annually to recognize an innovation that enhances safety for the state’s miners.

The association also recognized members of Twentymile’s workforce for their significant safety achievements.

Mine technical safety engineer Bob Johnson received the Lifetime Safety Award, and both engineer Kevin Copeland and operator Lance McLaughlin received Career Safety Achievement Award honors.

While the former is bestowed on merit, the latter is awarded annually to workers who exceed expectations and contribute new ideas, innovations and emergency responses while also operating free of a reportable incident during their careers.

A dozen workers at the mine, which produces 7.2 million tons annually, also earned individual safety awards, each for marking three decades of work without injury. Twentymile also was nominated for the CMA Large Underground Coal Mine – Excellence in Safety Award.

All the awards were distributed at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration/Colorado Mining Association conference early this month.

Peabody noted that Twentymile achieved a 2.12 incident rate for 2010, 62% better than its peers, which recorded a national average of 5.65, according to federal data. The mine’s performance also reflects a 60% year-on-year improvement.

“These strong results cap record global safety results for Peabody,” the company said.

“In 2010, Peabody improved its global safety incident rate more than 6 per cent – an extension of the company's record improvement each year for the past three years.”

Peabody executive vice-president and chief operating officer Eric Ford said that Twentymile’s leadership was a reflection on how teams across the company’s portfolio could work together to refine best practices, create standard procedures and share performance standards.

"This leadership also helped Twentymile mine complete this past year with the best safety performance among Peabody's underground mines."