The company also contributed to the Queensland parliamentary inquiry into the disease, Peabody said in a US Securities Exchange filing.  

“A small number of coal mine workers in Queensland and New South Wales have been diagnosed with coal worker's pneumoconiosis following decades of assumed eradication of the disease,” it said. 

“This has led the Queensland government to sponsor review of the system of screening coal mine workers for the disease with a view to improving early detection. The Queensland government has instituted increased reporting requirements for dust monitoring results, broader coal mine worker health assessment requirements and voluntary retirement examinations for coal mine workers to be arranged by the relevant employer and further reform may follow. 

“Peabody has undertaken a review of its practices and offered its Queensland workers the opportunity for additional CWP screening.”

Peabody has experience dealing with black lung in the US coal mining industry.

Under the US Black Lung Benefits Revenue Act of 1977 and the Black Lung Benefits Reform Act of 1977, as amended in 1981, each US coal mine operator must pay federal black lung benefits and medical expenses to claimants who are current or former employees who last worked for the operator after July 1 1973, and whose claims for benefits are allowed. 

Coal mine operators must also make payments to a trust fund for the payment of benefits and medical expenses to claimants who last worked in the coal industry prior to July 1 1973. 

Historically, very few of the miners who sought federal black lung benefits were awarded these benefits, however, the approval rate has increased following implementation of black lung provisions contained in the Affordable Care Act. 

The trust fund is funded by an excise tax on US production of up to US$1.10 per short ton for deep-mined coal and up to 55USc per ton for surface-mined coal, neither amount to exceed 4.4% of the gross sales price.