Peabody Mines Approve New Labor Contracts

Peabody Energy announced that workers at its Wambo and Wilpinjong mines in New South Wales have recently approved new labor agreements. Together, the new agreements cover more than two-thirds of the company’s high-value thermal coal exports from Australia. “These new agreements were approved by an average of 80%, indicating a clear show of support from workers at our oper-ations in Australia,” said Peabody President-Australia Eric Ford. “They follow the overwhelming approval of the new three-year North Goonyella enter-prise agreement in Queensland last month, covering Peabody’s highest-value hard coking coal production.” Peabody employees approved the new three-year Wambo enterprise agreement at the underground mine. Wambo employs 150 workers, producing high-quality thermal and PCI coal products. The mine’s underground operations shipped 3.1 mil-lion tons in 2011. The new four-year Wilpinjong agreement was reached with the mine’s current contract operator, Thiess. Wilpinjong will be transitioning to Peabody owner-operator status beginning April 1, 2013. Wilpinjong has a work-force of approximately 350 and produces thermal coal for both domestic and export markets. The mine shipped 9.8 million tons of coal in 2011 and recent-ly completed an expansion.