Community Emergency Response

Located in the southern Powder River Basin of Wyoming, Thunder Basin's Black Thunder mine employs approximately 1500 people and produces 9% of the US coal supply each year.

Since opening in 1977, more than 1 billion tonnes of coal have been mined at Black Thunder.

Tornado

Black Thunder mine's emergency responders were the first on the scene to help victims in the aftermath of the tornado, which had left more than 90 homes uninhabitable. The mine management developed an environmentally sound solution for gathering and disposing of 500 truckloads of debris.
The company was also able to provide free meals and work gloves to more than 300 homeless residents and disaster relief volunteers during the clean up. Arch Coal also donated US$25,000 to the Red Cross to further help with the recovery efforts left by the tornado.

Good Neighbour Award

In recognition of this action, Black Thunder mine employees were presented with the US Department of Interior's prestigious National Good Neighbor Award in Washington, DC in 2006. Black Thunder mine was selected from more than a dozen Good Neighbor state award winners.
Arch Coal's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Steven F. Leer, congratulated the employees of Black Thunder mine: "It is a well-deserved honour for the employees of Black Thunder to be nationally recognised as good neighbours. Being a good corporate citizen is integral to Arch Coal's overall success."

Operations

Arch Coal, Inc. is the second largest coal producer in the USA. The company's core business is providing US power producers with low-sulphur coal to fuel 6% of the nation's electricity. The company also sells coal to domestic and international steel manufacturers, as well as international power producers. In 2008, Arch Coal serviced 175 US power plants in 35 states and customers in 21 countries worldwide. Arch Coal subsidiaries have earned the US Department of Interior's National Good Neighbor award five times in five years.