By Tatyana Shumsky Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) will see lower coal output and earnings in 2012 as the coal mining company plans to spend much of the year bringing its newly acquired Australian coal mines up to industry standards. "The mines were not being operating to sustainable industry standards, we've chosen to address this issue head on," Gregory H. Boyce, Chairman and Chief Executive, said on the conference call. Peabody, the largest U.S. coal producer by output, recently completed its roughly $5.05 billion acquisition of the Australia-based coal-mining company Macarthur Coal Ltd. (MCC.AU), increasing its exposure to the growing Asian market. Macarthur's mines suffered from adverse weather conditions as well as delays in widening the mine, known as overburden stripping. Peabody executives said around 12 million cubic meters of waste material must be removed to get the Australian mines up to standard, "we're planning to potentially move about 90% of that this year." "Major repair deferral was occurring in the last 6 months of the prior management operating those assets," a Peabody Energy executive said on the call. -By Tatyana Shumsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3095; tatyana.shumsky@dowjones.com
