Peabody Energy's Kayenta Mine is located on a reservation lands along a highland plateau called Black Mesa in Northeast Arizona. The mine operates through lease agreements with the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe and supplies approximately 8 million tons of low-sulfur thermal coal annually to Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz., under a long-term contract.

 

Mining at Kayenta occurs under complex geological conditions, with coal extracted from multiple seams and splits of seams ranging in thickness from three to 18 feet. Coal is crushed then carried via conveyor 17 miles to storage silos, where it is loaded on a closed loop electric train and transported 80 miles to the generating station, which generates more than 2,280 megawatts of affordable and reliable electricity for businesses and households across the Southwest.

 

Peabody's Arizona operations have injected an estimated $3 billion in economic benefits for tribal communities. For example, native people comprise more than 90% of Kayenta Mine's more than 415-person workforce. Operations at the adjacent Black Mesa Mine have been suspended, and Peabody is currently pursuing coal-related opportunities with both tribes that would allow the mine to resume production, creating high-paying jobs and economic development opportunities for tribal people.

 

Peabody's Arizona operations have earned numerous awards for industry-leading efforts to reclaim mined lands in a manner that also preserves cultural ways. On Black Mesa, leading-edge technology is used to return land to a condition that typically is 20 times more productive than native range, and more than 10,000 acres have been restored for grazing, wildlife habitat and cultural plant cultivation. The company's efforts have earned national recognition, including the "Silver" Good Neighbor and National Reclamation Excellence honors from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2005 and the "Gold" Good Neighbor Award and Director's Award in 2003. Peabody also received international recognition by placing in the top 2 percent among more than 700 entries in the Energy Globe Awards for creating a global model for sustainability on Arizona's Black Mesa.

 

Peabody Western is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2007 sales of 238 million tons of coal and $4.6 billion in revenues. Its coal products fuel approximately 10 percent of all U.S. electricity and more than 2 percent of worldwide electricity. The company is serving global coal demand from electricity generators and steelmakers, and is growing to serve new global customers and emerging Btu Conversion markets.