ST. LOUIS, MO. - December 13, 2002 - The 2001 annual report of Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) recently captured Best Annual Report in the coal industry by the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC) for the fourth consecutive year.

Judges evaluated and selected Arch Coal's report as a 2002 Nicholson Award winner for outstanding content, financial reporting and design. The NAIC believes the program spurs publicly traded companies to produce clearer, more readable annual reports.

"We regard this award as particularly significant because it comes from the NAIC, which is highly regarded for its efforts on behalf of the individual investor," said Deck S. Slone, Arch Coal's vice president of investor relations and public affairs. "We place a very high priority on communicating with our shareholders and other members of the investment community in a manner that is clear, comprehensive and straight-forward."

Arch's 2001 annual report also received accolades from the prestigious AR100 competition, which recognized it as one of the 100 best-designed annual reports across all industries for 2001.

A copy of Arch's annual report may be downloaded from www.archcoal.com.

Arch Coal is the nation's second largest coal producer and mines low-sulfur coal exclusively. Through its subsidiary operations in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, Arch provides the fuel for approximately 6 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.