2023 Performance against Goals and Key Performance Indicators
Environment
Corporate
Goal: Achieve a perfect environmental compliance record each and every year
Execution: Achieved target with a perfect SMCRA compliance record in 2023
Goal: Achieve ResponsibleSteelTM certification at one or more of the company’s metallurgical mines by 2025
Execution: Shifted focus to achieving Level A verification under globally recognized Towards Sustainable Mining standard, which we determined to be more directly applicable to our mining activities
- Achieved Level A verification in December 2023 at the Leer mine, which became the first U.S. mine of any type to do so
- Initiated efforts in pursuit of Level A verification at the Leer South mine
Climate
Goal: Direct more than 80 percent of capital spending towards metallurgical segment over the course of the next five years
Execution: Directed 81 percent of capital spending towards metallurgical segment in first year of the five-year assessment period
Water
Goal: Achieve a 100-percent compliance record for water quality management each year
Execution: Achieved target with zero water quality exceedances against more than 90,000 parameters measured in 2023
Goal: Use recycled water to reduce new water withdrawals from all sources by an aggregate of at least 30 percent in the 2023–2025 period
Execution: Recorded a strong start towards achieving the three-year target via the use of recycled water to reduce new water withdrawals by a total of 40 percent during 2023
Land/Biodiversity
Goal: Maintain a cash balance in our thermal mine reclamation fund sufficient — on a present value basis — to cover final closure costs at the company’s Black Thunder surface mine in Wyoming
Execution: Built the cash balance in the thermal mine reclamation fund to $144 million, a total that — on a present value basis — should prove sufficient to cover final closure costs at the Black Thunder mine
Goal: Place at least one large tract of land into a conservation easement by 2025 in support of wildlife populations and the natural ecosystem
Execution: Still in the process of evaluating opportunities to create value for mine communities by placing certain lands into conservation easements
Waste
Goal: Complete third-party assessments at each of Arch’s active impoundments — as well as at its inactive impoundments yet to enter final reclamation status — in 2023 and annually going forward
Execution: Completed third-party assessments at each subsidiary impoundment, and used those assessments to further enhance management practices at these sites
Social
Safety
Goal: Achieve a perfect safety record — with zero lost-time incidents and zero fatalities — each and every year
Interim Goal: Achieve a lost-time incident rate of 1.17 or less (per 200,000 employee-hours worked) in 2023, which is roughly 2.5 times better than the 2022 coal industry average
Goal: Inspire an aggregate of 500,000 or more employee-driven safety observations in the 2023–2025 period, in alignment with Arch’s behavior-based safety culture
Execution: Inspired 289,175 written safety observations — along with 149,923 written pre-job risk assessments — during 2023, putting the company more than half way to the target level for the 2023–2025 period
People
Goal: Implement an expanded Arch CARES initiative to further engrain inclusion and mutual respect into the Arch culture
Execution: Rolled out a new logo for the CARES program; integrated CARES principles into on-boarding materials; took steps for new salaried employees to complete a course on promoting respect in the workplace; and created and distributed new learning materials that promote the fundamental principles of the program
Governance
Goal: Conduct formal outreach and seek to engage the owners of at least 50 percent of Arch’s equity each year to solicit input on key governance matters such as executive compensation, corporate governance, ESG-related execution, and other current/emerging issues
Execution: Approached the owners of more than 75 percent of Arch’s equity to solicit input on key governance matters, conducting meetings with each of those shareholders that expressed interest
