CHARLESTON, W.Va., July 15, 2011 -- Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE: ACI) today announced that its mining subsidiaries earned eight statewide safety awards at West Virginia's Annual State Council Meeting of the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association.

The following company operations received West Virginia State Mine Safety Awards for outstanding 2010 performances: among underground operations, Mingo Logan's Mountain Laurel Mountaineer II mine and Wolf Run's Imperial mine; among surface mines, Coal-Mac's Holden 22 mine and Eastern's Birch River mine; and among preparation plants, Eastern's Birch River plant and Wolf Run's Sentinel plant.

Moreover, two of Arch's subsidiary operations were named Joseph A. Holmes Safety Award recipients as the top 2010 safety performers in their respective categories. Coal-Mac's Holden 22 mine was recognized for achieving the state's best injury-incidence rate among all of West Virginia's surface/auger operations with more than 26 employees. Coal-Mac's 300 surface employees completed 599,653 hours without a medical reportable safety incident in 2010. Wolf Run's Sentinel preparation plant was recognized for achieving West Virginia's best injury-incident rate among large surface facilities. The 32 plant employees at Sentinel worked 70,318 hours without a medical reportable safety incident in 2010.

"We are very proud of our mining employees for achieving these notable, statewide safety awards," said John W. Eaves, Arch's president and chief operating officer. "We commend these West Virginia employees for their personal commitment to working safely."

U.S.-based Arch Coal is a top five global coal producer and marketer, with 179 million tons of coal sold pro forma in 2010. Arch is the most diversified American coal company, with 24 mining complexes across every major U.S. coal supply basin. Arch's core business is supplying cleaner-burning, low-sulfur thermal and metallurgical coal to power generators and steel manufacturers on four continents. Arch's 2010 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 awards is available at www.archcoal.com/aboutus/awards.aspx.