Safety
Safety is a guiding principle at Arch Coal and our subsidiary
operations. Our top value is making sure that every miner returns
home safe and healthy at the end of every shift. For the most recent
calendar year (2015), we achieved our best safety record in company
history. Our Total Incident Rate (TIR) was 0.99 and was more than
three times lower than the industry average. This marked the tenth
consecutive year Arch ranked first among our major diversified coal
industry peers in safety. (*Source: MSHA Coal Controlling Report,
MSHA Mine Injury and Worktime)
Award-Winning, Proactive and Innovative Safety Practices
Over the years, we have been recognized for safety, including
MSHA's top national honor - the
Sentinels of Safety Award - for calendar year 2001, 2007, 2008,
two for 2011, 2013 and 2015. We believe our accomplishments are a
testament to Arch's deep-rooted culture of treating safety as a
value and the strong participation of our employees in the process.
The ultimate goal of the Arch Coal family of companies is to
achieve A Perfect Zero. With an industry leading rate
and a focus on prevention, we strive for zero safety incidents
every year.
Our mines adopted a behavior-based safety program (BBS) in 2006
that enlists virtually every one of our employees to identify
at-risk behaviors before an incident occurs. As a result of BBS and
other proactive, upstream safety measures, Arch is the safety leader
among our peer group of diversified, U.S. coal companies.
At Arch, we are constantly exploring ways to leverage technology to
improve our safety performance and improve the safety and health of
mine employees industry wide. The Leer mine was recognized with the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 2016
Technology Innovations Award in the coal sector for its innovative
stockpile safety system. Through the collaboration of operations and
IT professionals a stockpile system - designed to mitigate potential
stockpile dozer incidents and reduce risk - was developed and
implemented at the operation.
Working safely enables Arch to continue doing what we do best:
producing coal responsibly and efficiently.