Name: North Antelope Rochelle mine.

Location: The mine is located 105 km south-east of Gillette, in Wyoming, in the US.

Controlling Company: Peabody Energy (100%).

Brief History: The North Antelope mine started operating in late 1983, with the Rochelle mine beginning production in late 1985. The two mines were combined in 1999, becoming the largest coal mining operation in the US.

Brief Description: The North Antelope Rochelle mine is the US’s largest and most productive coal mine, offering some of the lowest sulphur coal in the country. The coal seam mined is the Wyodak-Anderson. Coal quality averages at about 8 800 British thermal units a pound and 0.20% sulphur, making North Antelope Rochelle coal the cleanest in the US.

Geology/Mineralisation: The North Antelope Rochelle mine exploits the Wyodak-Anderson coal seam, which ranges from 9.1 m to 24.4 m thick, and lies from 15.24 m to 107 m below the surface in the reserve area.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2012, were 2.364-billion tons.

Products: Coal.

Mining Method: Openpit.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The complex uses three draglines and five truck-and-shovel fleets for overburden removal and operates on two 12-hour shifts a day, 365 days a year.

Coal is mined from three pits and is hauled by truck to one of four hoppers at the complex, where it is crushed and then conveyed to the silos and the loadouts.

Two concentric loop tracks connect with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads’ joint trackage. The loading facilities consist of two 10 000 t/h loadouts, one on each loop. The loop tracks handle 150 cars per unit train. Coal from the complex is currently delivered to more than 40 electricity-generating customers operating more than 80 power plants throughout the US.

Prospects: In June 2012, Peabody Energy announced the lease of 721-million tons of ultralow sulphur coal reserves, adjacent to its North Antelope Rochelle mine, in the southern Powder river basin of Wyoming. The company submitted a bid of $1.10 per mineable ton for control of the North Porcupine reserve area to the Bureau of Land Management, which awarded the lease following a sealed-bid auction process.

The company planned to incorporate the deposit into its mine plan for the North Antelope Rochelle mine.

Contact Person: Senior VP – global investor relations and corporate relations, Vic Svec.

Contact Details:
Peabody Energy
Tel +1 314 342 3400
Email PR@PeabodyEnergy.com
Website http://www.peabodyenergy.com