Somerset, Colo. (September 11, 2007) - Teachers and students soon will benefit from a new Arch Coal Foundation grants program in Delta County, according to West Elk's General Manager Pete Wyckoff.

The Arch Coal Foundation is funded by Arch Coal, Inc, which owns West Elk mine. The Foundation will grant up to $10,000 to K-12 teachers in Delta County's public schools to invent and test innovative teaching ideas in their classrooms during the 2007-2008 school year. Teachers throughout the county have received application materials and information.

"Education has traditionally been the largest area of giving for Arch Coal because we believe quality education enhances our country's competitiveness and advances our future," said Wyckoff. "Through this grants program, we can encourage Delta County teachers to use their experience, skills and imagination to generate innovative techniques or concepts that will aid learning in their classrooms. We want these ideas to be tested in the classroom and, if successful, be shared with other teachers.

"We believe these ideas should be relatively inexpensive because we want to encourage other teachers to replicate the best ideas," said Wyckoff. "We also know that many teachers have to fund new ideas out of their own pockets. Not only do we want to encourage these new ideas, we want to help fund them."

Individual classroom awards will be limited to no more than $500 each. Eligible teachers, or teaching teams, can apply for one award every school year. Wyckoff also said the Foundation is forming a committee composed of area citizens and local employees to review applications and make recommendations to the Arch Coal Foundation for grant recipients.

Arch Coal employees unveiled the Innovative Teaching Grants program to Delta County school principals at a meeting today. The grants application form and other pertinent information are posted at www.archcoal.com/community/teachinggrants.asp.

Arch Coal, Inc. is one of the nation's largest coal producers. The company's core business is providing U.S. power generators with clean-burning, low-sulfur coal for electric generation. Through its national network of mines, Arch supplies the fuel for approximately 6 percent of the electricity generated in the United States. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ACI) and maintains its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, Mo. Mountain Coal Company's West Elk Mine is located in Somerset, Colo. Almost 400 people are employed at West Elk.