ST. LOUIS, Sept 21, 2010 -- Arch Coal, Inc. today announced that its predictive maintenance program has been named as the best overall program among mobile equipment fleets from around the world by Uptime magazine.

"Earning the best predictive maintenance award is an important achievement for Arch Coal's national network of mines," said John W. Eaves, Arch's president and chief operating officer. "The mining environment is very dynamic, which makes the maintenance of equipment an intense and challenging effort. That's why our mining personnel value the recognition for their best-in-class practices that include managing risk and reducing exposure through planned, preventative and predictive maintenance."

Arch's predictive maintenance program employs certified maintenance engineers at each mining complex and standardized processes to provide comprehensive oil and vibration analysis, ultrasonic flaw detection, thermography and motor circuit analysis. This technology is used for quality standards and acceptance testing at component and rebuild facilities certified by Arch. According to Arch's Director of Technical and Maintenance Services, Bob McCreary, Arch has reduced controllable maintenance costs by 5 percent annually over the last four years by integrating a comprehensive predictive maintenance program throughout its national network of mines.

"Arch Coal's commitment to excellence thrust them to the top of the list as 2010's best overall mobile program for predictive maintenance," said Uptime Publisher Terrence O'Hanlon, CMRP. "Uptime PdM Awards are designed to serve as inspiration for our other readers who are on their own journeys to improve maintenance reliability at their organizations."

Details about the 2010 reliability award recipients can be found in Uptime's October/November issue and also will be posted at http://www.reliabilityweb.com/ and http://www.uptimemagazine.com/.

St. Louis-based Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE: ACI) is the nation's second largest coal producer. The company's core business is providing U.S. power generators with clean-burning, low-sulfur coal for electric generation. The company also ships coal to domestic and international steel manufacturers as well as international power producers. Through its national network of mines and 4,600-person workforce, Arch supplies the fuel for approximately 8 percent of the electricity generated in the United States.