The President’s Safety Awards are presented to Peabody operations that produce the best safety results each year. Peabody has 11 mines in Australia, three underground and eight open cut.
The Eaglefield mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin received the award for the safest open-cut operation, achieving no reportable incidents for the third consecutive calendar year. The mine employs roughly 220 people and has operated incident-free for more than 41 months.
Peabody’s Burton mine, also in the Bowen Basin, received the award for the most improved safety performance. The mine reported a 50% cut in its injury rate last year. The mine employs approximately 650 people.
Peabody Energy Australia president Charles Meintjes said the three mines set a high standard for excellence in safety in Australia.
"I'm proud of our employees for making safety a way of life and working toward our global safety vision of zero incidents of any kind," he said.
Despite considerable percentage improvements, it is unclear how many incidents occurred at the Wambo and Burton mines.
Collectively, Peabody’s 2012 operations reported the best safety results in the company’s 130-year history.
In Australia, Peabody’s operations achieved an incidence rate of 2.5, a 9% improvement on 2011.
The incidence rate is a measure of safety performance that represents the number of injuries that occurred for each 200,000 employee hours worked, according to Peabody’s 2012 annual report.
