CHARLESTON, W.Va., Feb. 8, 2011 -- Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE: ACI) today announced that its Eastern operations earned four prestigious awards in West Virginia, including top state honors for surface mine safety and environmental care.

The Barton B. Lay, Jr. Milestones of Safety Award was presented to Coal-Mac, Inc. by the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training for the best safety performance among West Virginia surface coal mines in 2010. Coal-Mac's surface employees completed 599,653 hours without a medical reportable safety incident in 2010.

Mountain Laurel's Mountaineer II mine earned a West Virginia Mountaineer Guardian Award for underground mine safety. Employees completed 754,760 hours with a total incident rate of 1.72 per 200,000 hours worked, which is three times better than the U.S. underground coal mine average of 5.81 per 200,000 employee hours.

In addition to earning the state's top safety award, Coal-Mac also received the year's top environmental achievement. The West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection (DEP) presented Coal-Mac with the Greenlands Award for overall outstanding environmental performance and achievement in reclamation. This marks Coal-Mac's third time to claim the top Greenlands Award and the sixth time in 10 years that an Arch subsidiary has earned the honor.

Moreover, Coal-Mac earned a second reclamation award - The South Surface Award - for exemplary post-mining land use on its Phoenix surface mine. Superior planning and reclamation resulted in a commercial farming, cattle and horse grazing operation in Mingo County.

"Our men and women in West Virginia have achieved the state's top awards for their devotion to safety and environmental care," said John W. Eaves, Arch's president and chief operating officer. "We're honored to lead the Central Appalachian coal industry in safety and environmental performance and to improve upon our leading record year after year."

Coal-Mac, Inc. is a subsidiary of Arch Coal, Inc. Coal-Mac is located near Holden, W.Va., and employs approximately 300 people. In the past five years, the employees of Coal-Mac have received a dozen national and state awards for environmental excellence, including a Department of Interior 2010 National Award for excellence in surface mine reclamation.

Mingo Logan Coal Company is a subsidiary of Arch Coal, Inc. Mingo Logan's Mountain Laurel complex is located near Sharples, W.Va., and has a workforce of approximately 350 people.

St. Louis-based Arch Coal is one of the nation's largest and most efficient coal producers, with record revenues of $3.2 billion in 2010. Through its national network of mines, Arch supplies cleaner-burning, low-sulfur coal to U.S. power producers to fuel roughly 8 percent of the nation's electricity. The company also ships coal to domestic and international steel manufacturers as well as international power producers. In 2010, Arch's lost-time incident rate of 0.46 per 200,000 hours worked is five times better than the national coal industry average of 2.52 per 200,000 hours worked. A multi-year list of environmental and safety awards is available at http://www.archcoal.com/aboutus/awards.aspx.