CW-1. Manager – Financial Modeling Peabody Brisbane Office Australia. Peabody Energy Class Action

60. CW-1 was employed as a Manager – Financial Modeling – at Peabody’s Australian headquarters in Brisbane from November 2018 to December 2019. Prior to that, CW1 was the Commercial Superintendent North Goonyella Coal from June 2012 to November 2018.

During his time as Commercial Superintendent, CW-1 spent approximately two (2) months (from September and October 2018) at the camp site at North Goonyella, approximately 15 km from the mine, working as a part of the team tasked with determining the costs associated with re-opening the mine and preparing the financial projections for progress thereafter. In this role, CW-1 reported to Nick Oakley (Commercial Manager).

161. CW-1 confirmed that following the fire at the mine, an “exclusion zone” was established and only select personnel were allowed near it or able to enter the mine. CW-1 added that during the initial period in which the exclusion zone was established no one was allowed to enter the mine and then as time went on select individuals were permitted entry.

173. CW-1 explained that Peabody was “doing everything in their power” to get North Goonyella “up and running.”  CW-1 recalled the models he prepared being scrutinized by Andrew Muir, Peter Baker, “all the financial people in the U.S.,” as well as former President – Australia George Schuller. CW-1 added that there was “no shortage of people looking at the models.”

174. CW-1 heard from other mine employees that Peabody’s initial response to the fire was wrong because the Company had incorrectly identified which part of the mine the fire was occurring in.

175. CW-1 also heard from other mine employees that the ventilation fans tasked with removing oxygen from the mines were turned in the wrong direction and were sending additional gas into the mines, worsening the fire.

H Projections for Resumption of Coal Production at North Goonyella Lack Reasonable Basis Given Rapidly Changing Conditions

183. CW-1 spent approximately 2 months (September to October 2018) at the camp site at North Goonyella, approximately 15 kilometers from the mine, working as a part of the team with Nick Oakley (Commercial Manager) tasked with determining the costs associated with re-opening the mine and the financial projections for progress thereafter.

184. According to CW-1, Peabody deployed two “task teams,” one stationed in Brisbane, Australia and another at the camp site near North Goonyella, who were in charge of operations, recovery, legal, media, and social responsibilities. CW-1 recalled both teams being in place during the two months he was at the North Goonyella camp and continuing after he departed the camp site in late October 2018.

185. According to CW-1, he and Nick Oakley were in charge of the financial projections with operational input from John Deakins (Development Manager). CW-1 explained that in his role, he was reliant on the figures and information provided by the operational employees in terms of how much it would cost to get the mine functional again. According to CW-1, John Anger and Michael Carter were responsible for the mine forecasts. CW-1 recalled that Andrew Muir (Director Financial Projects) was tasked with scrutinizing the forecasts and determining the budget and timing for the recovery efforts. CW-1 confirmed that Muir was doing a lot of work to help with “the estimation of the recovery in dollars.”

186. CW-1 advised that the North Goonyella forecasts garnered a lot of interest from Peabody’s headquarters in the U.S. and were heavily scrutinized by the U.S. team. CW-1 confirmed that the original estimate was that it would take 12-15 months for the mine to be operational again, an estimate that was later revised to 18 months before he left North Goonyella for a different position in Brisbane in late October 2018. CW-1 explained that discussions on when the mine would re-open occurred at a high level, but “no one knew at the time exactly when the mine was going to re-open.”

187. CW-1 explained that the estimate to re-open the mine “just went up as they went along” as Peabody discovered that things had melted or that equipment had become buried underground. CW-1 advised that, in his estimation, the most important thing was that Peabody could not figure out was where the fire was exactly and what had caused it.  CW-1 explained that as time went on and Peabody attempted to determine this information, the dollar figure [to reopen the mine] “just went north.”

193. CW-1 explained that following his re-location to Brisbane, John Anger, Mike Carter, and Andrew Muir continued to lead the North Goonyella recovery efforts. According to CW-1, while working at Peabody’s Australian Headquarters in Brisbane he worked on the “life of mines” modeling and long-term forecasting for Peabody’s Australian mines. CW-1 recalled conducting this type of analysis on North Goonyella 8 or 9 months following his departure from his role at North Goonyella (this would be approximately in July or August 2019).  CW-1 advised that his work included producing models to help determine if re-opening North Goonyella was a viable option.  CW-1 explained that he ran a “couple of scenarios,” including one in which Peabody were going to seal up all the north panels and then attempt to mine the south panels and another in which Peabody would seal up 9N and 10N and mine 11N.  CW-1 advised that “obviously they tried to get back into production as soon as possible,” noting that he never got the sense that sealing up the mine permanently was ever an option and that Peabody wanted to recover the equipment and continue mining.  According to CW-1, the projected timetable to return to mining at North Goonyella at this time was between 2022 and 2025 and that the models were “pretty intensely scrutinized” as North Goonyella was the “jewel of the Australian platform.”

339. Defendants’ statements about the resumption of coal production at North Goonyella, contained in ¶¶ 334-336, were materially false and/or misleading when made in that they failed to disclose the adverse facts listed in ¶¶ 298, 312 and 324 pertaining to the feasibility of Peabody’s plan to restart coal production at the North Goonyella mine, and also failed to disclose the following additional adverse facts which was known to or recklessly disregarded by Defendants:

(a)  According to CW-1, by approximately July or August 2019, the projected timetable to return to mining at North Goonyella was between 2022 and 2025.