Run of Mine

Here's 2 questions for people more experienced than I in buying Bit coal:

1) If you were buying ROM for $100/ton, screening it to nothing smaller than one inch and calling everything less than one inch fines. What percentage of fines would you consider acceptable out of each ton?

2) What is the proper name for bituminous coal that ranges in size from one inch to grapefruit size with a heavy slant towards walnut to orange sizes?

Thanks for your input.

The first question is a tough one. Everyone would have a different tolerance depending on their stove make and coal burning characteristics. My warm morning will burn anything I put in it so fines are not an issue for me, someone else burning in a wood and coal furnace would have more problem with fines.

Second question, at my yard we would call that size nut coal

hope this helps

The first one depends on the coal; some coals will have greater percentages of fines and small sizes because of the nature of the coal and method of mining and initial handling/crushing. it could be anywhere from 15% to 50% fines for a load of ROM depending on those factors. If you are screening anything smaller than one inch yourself, you might want to screen out the "fines" (less than 3/8") and sell it on craigslist as "pea stoker" for combustioneers etc. rather than throwing it away; that size coal is getting harder to find and you will have a ready market for it.

The second one would be poorly screened "nut" or "egg" sized coal.

Berlin wrote:The first one depends on the coal; some coals will have greater percentages of fines and small sizes because of the nature of the coal and method of mining and initial handling/crushing. it could be anywhere from 15% to 50% fines for a load of ROM depending on those factors. If you are screening anything smaller than one inch yourself, you might want to screen out the "fines" (less than 3/8") and sell it on craigslist as "pea stoker" for combustioneers etc. rather than throwing it away; that size coal is getting harder to find and you will have a ready market for it.

The second one would be poorly screened "nut" or "egg" sized coal.

I use it all, the fines I just roll up in paper bags or 3 layers of news paper and make "logs" lol, Im in the gravel business so....nut coal would moreless be considerd 2B, stove size to fist # 3 to 4 size, anything bigger considered rip rap, but like I said thats how they grade (size) gravel, and there are other tests involved but this is probably not what ya wanted to know..sorry

Thanks for the information. I emptied my trailer yesterday and decided It was time to see exactly how many fines were in an average load. I broke the big lumps, screened the remainder and unloaded the trailer. I weighed a few buckets and determined they were all about 34 lbs:



And kept count as I hauled them away:



I had bought 4080 lbs:



And threw away 646 lbs of fines. Assuming my math is correct I threw out 16% of my load. Again, assuming my math is correct I paid $118/ton of usable coal. Still pretty darned good, especially when compared to propane.

I know is a hassle, but have you ever burnt the fines by rolling some up in a paper bag and try burning them that way? so you would be ab;e to use 100% of your ton?

that stuff in your tractor bucket is a good portion of a ton for me mixed in with the big lumps of course, id bur it lol

It seems that whenever I run many fines, I get excessive smoke and I seem to build soot in the chimney worse. I ran some when I first put the stove in and wound up having to clean the chimney way too soon. I started screening more agressively and I checked yesterday and my stack was really clean. Does this make sense or not?

yep, what do you do with the fines now? are you going to resell on craigslist or somthin for a reduced price?

Out of that 646 lbs. how much do you think could be used for stoker fuel, and/or is it worth the time to sift another time and find a buyer for it.It's still a 50% savings compared to what most of us are buying ant. coal for

true but if he is gunna screen it he will accumulate some tonnage lol, hell, if I lived close to him id offer a couple bucks for his "screenings" In these parts we can get bit for $60/ton at the mine. I use it all because i have to get my $ worth lol, I just put up with the additional cleaning for that price

I dont get those gargantuous pieces he gets but being $ is tight I burn all of it

Well, I don't know where my response went......

I'm just dumping it in the woods. I threw out a like amount of stoker size from last year as well yesterday. I may be the only person in my entire county heating with coal so I doubt there's much market. I may well start saving the stoker size since there's no shortage of dry storage here. Believe me, I'd give someone the fines if they'd move them!

ETA: It depends on the load. Some loads have very few actual fines, and then you'll get a load like this one that's really full of them. Even at $118 vs $100 I'm still getting pretty darned cheap heat.

Stephen in Soky wrote:Well, I don't know where my response went......

I'm just dumping it in the woods. I threw out a like amount of stoker size from last year as well yesterday. I may be the only person in my entire county heating with coal so I doubt there's much market. I may well start saving the stoker size since there's no shortage of dry storage here. Believe me, I'd give someone the fines if they'd move them!

if I lived in Ky id deffenatly come n get em lol

It wouldnt hurt to try say post an ad on craigslist in your area, bc there may be someone less fortunate that would gladly come n get it? Ya never know