Peabody Energy announced plans to increase production from its Twentymile mine in north-west Colorado to meet growing demand for high-quality, low sulphur Western Bituminous coal.

"Twentymile coal travels as far as Canada, the Southeastern United States, and Mexico," said group executive of Colorado operations Charles A Burggraf.

"We are experiencing record demand for this high-Btu compliance coal, and recent rail upgrades near Denver allow us to target increasing volumes."

An additional 80 employees will be hired this year and a new state-of-the-art longwall mining system boosting efficiency and productivity will be installed during the first quarter of 2006.

Twentymile produced a record 8.7Mt of coal last year. According to a statistical review produced by Weir International Mining Consultants for American Longwall Magazine, this ranks the mine as the fifth most productive longwall mine in the US. For calendar 2004 average tons produced per man-hour totalled 10.68.

Twentymile mines a 9ft seam from a large reserve located in the Uinta Coal Basin.