The institute, which covers an eight-state region in the western US coal fields, said Skyline earned the distinction for its “outstanding and ongoing safety performance during 2006, 2007 and 2008” at the longwall operation.

“Skyline's total incident rate of 0.82 [per 200,000 hours worked in 2008] again puts you at the head of the pack that is increasingly getting better each year,” RMCMI safety committee chairman Ed Pettigrew told the winning crew.

“Your continued safety performance is truly remarkable and deserves this recognition.”

Skyline is operated by Canyon Fuel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arch, and has a payroll of 175.

It also earned the US Department of the Interior’s Sentinels of Safety award in 2005 for mining 28 months and more than 500,000 employee hours without a reportable or lost-time injury.

Between 2006 and 2008, the mine sold 7.2 million tons of output, according to Arch.