Black Diamond Mining Co. Coal Quality?

Does anyone have any experience burning coal from Black Diamond Mining from Mt. Carmel, PA? A friend of mine asked me about that breaker and as many breakers I have hauled out of I have never heard of them. I google searched them and I found their address and phone number and they are only a couple of miles from Harmony. So before my curiosity gets the best of me and I go get a load to try I would like to hear what other may know about the operation.

Hmmm Never heard of black diamond coal company in Mt. Carmel Pa. Will check it out and see what I can find.

Rev. Larry

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate ... -12-10.pdf

Found this 2 year old link to a Pa. State file showing active mining permit holders in Pa. Refuse processing is actually culm pile sifting, sorting, and reselling. There was a reason that they tossed that stuff back in the day. Everyone appears to be jumping on the bandwagon going after their fortune in the black trash coal business.

If you see a reference to refuse reprocessing which is the bulk of the listing for active permits that means they are cleaning and selling what they get from the "culm mountains" in Pa. At the old Glenn Burn site in Shamokin Pa. you see trucks come down that culm mountain all day long five days a week mostly going to the co-gen plant in Kulpmont Pa. where they have a special boiler designed to burn the junk coal that comes from culm. I tried Split Vein who is a reprocessor last year. They specializes in "recovered coal." I bought a 1/2 ton to try it. With Harmony at $170 and Split Vein at $110 a ton I decided to try it. It was the biggest mistake I made since burning coal.

The rice coal wouldn't burn in my yellow flame stoker hot water boiler. It would just come down the grate, refuse to light and just sit there and go out. The amount of actual dirt and rocks, not coal fines, actual DIRT, was incredible. I made a cleaning screen and actually had to hose it down outside a bucket load at a time to get it where I could get anything to burn at all. I mixed it 25% with Lenig rice when they had the good stuff. That was the only way I could get rid of the trash coal and sometimes I had to rake a lot off the grate because the Lenig would burn but the Split Vein just sat in the mix. The reprocessed pea coal would burn maybe 75% and the rest just sat there and clogged the grate on my Effel hand fed.

If you want really really really cheap coal and don't mind the bone, rock, and just plain bad coal get it from a re-processor. Otherwise stick with the plants where there are a line of pickup trucks every Saturday morning. Lines of dump trucks pretty much means they are hauling refuse or culm to or from a re-processor. Lines of pickup trucks means they got good stuff. Kinda like a truck stop. Packed truck stop means decent food. Empty truck stop... buyer beware!

Rev. Larry