Where do you get your Bituminous coal and a going price?

Richard S. wrote:We have a thread for both of these for anthracite but I'll leave it here for bituminous users. This is kind of like the Mac section on a lot of general computer forums, they have their own little world.

For anthracite prices and suppliers use these threads.

Need Coal? Post it here!

Price check...What's the going price in your area?

OOhhh, No. To me Mac is a bad word. In computers for 30 years. Would not even want to look at a mac. Yikes.

gweedow wrote:So I picked up a ton of Bituminous coal the other day, 12/14/12 at only 80 dollars a ton. I live in the south western part of Pennsylvania. 48 miles south of Pittsburgh. I got the coal from in Fayette City. Gillespie Coal yard. It was washed coal, about 3/4 to 2 inch. size. Burns great. I can not see buying Anthracite coal at around 256 dollars a ton and is 23 miles away to get.

It's a no-brainer isn't it

I guess I have three different prices. I can get it from Sunbeam Coal in Salina, UT for $90 a ton delivered in town or I can drive up to Sufco Mine and get it for $64 a ton, and then I've had a couple of the minors say they can bring me a load in their truck for $14 a ton, I haven't asked anyone to get it for me at the cheepest price because I'm afraid they could loose their job since the price is for the employee of the mine and not to resale.

We picked up a ton of “hand picked” coal from Oxford Recourses in New Lexington Ohio yesterday. The coal seems denser and dryer than last year, very shiny black and hard. Was pleasantly surprised when I loaded some into the boiler yesterday and found the sulfur smell when first fired was a lot less than last years load, smoke was a gray/black instead of the usual gray/yellow. I burn in and outdoor wood/coal boiler and hand pick my coal by loading with a pitch fork. Generally get only coal from orange to basketball size. Price is still $75 per ton. Still dark here this morning, will see what is left in the fire box once the sun comes up. Merry Christmas and stay warm!

Up date:
Been burning a mix of this year’s coal and wood and getting great results. 24 hour burns with plenty remaining in the fire box. Coal is burning very clean with little clinkers our bridging. The smell is a lot better this year with only a very mild sulfur odor. Great coal and great price!

How's the smoke with your mix of wood and coal?

I got some stuff from the landscape place up here that burns great but smokes so bad the neighbors are throwing fits. Coal I burned in the past wasn't like that.

I have been trying to come up with a way to be able to haul more than a ton of coal from down there up to me, but to date, no solutions.

jstange wrote:How's the smoke with your mix of wood and coal?

I got some stuff from the landscape place up here that burns great but smokes so bad the neighbors are throwing fits. Coal I burned in the past wasn't like that.

I have been trying to come up with a way to be able to haul more than a ton of coal from down there up to me, but to date, no solutions.

When a new load is fired the first time I get a gray/black plume during most of the cycle. After that it subsides considerably, by the 3rd cycle it resembles an all wood load. My closest neighbors are about1/4 mile away. Lots of boilers in a 5 mile radius of me. If smoke is a problem; load coal late at night, most won’t see it so it's doesn’t exist. If your neighbors are right on top of you the wood load only could draw complaints. How long have you been burning?

I have been burning 5 years, this is 6th season.

They are used to wood, hate the coal smell so complain about smoke.

You may do better with an anthracite coal and wood mix but your wallet will complain in Michigan! Anthracite does not have the sulfur smell but will be big $$$$$$ !

Anthracite doesn't burn for me well even with wood.

Bit burns well, just hard to get up here. Was going to trek down to Oxford, but only have truck that can haul a ton no place to rent dump trailer here. I like burning coal, had good success in past, just bad smell load this time.

newtocoaljon wrote:then I've had a couple of the minors say they can bring me a load in their truck for $14 a ton, I haven't asked anyone to get it for me at the cheepest price because I'm afraid they could loose their job since the price is for the employee of the mine and not to resale.

I don't think they would...

When I did a tour at the Black Thunder Mine in Wyoming, they had a spot where employees could come and load up coal "for home use" the Supervisor told us. He said it was the smaller bits of coal that the power companies preferred not to get.

A few moment later we watched as a Mine Truck rolled by carrying 300 tons on its back and some of the load fell off. It is hard to say how many tons that it was because of the size of that truck and having nothing to compare it too, but I figured it was about 20 ton or so, so I said, "You must scrape that up with a grader and haul it to the crusher at the end of the day?" And he said that it was just waste. They figure if it is not running off three sides then the truck is not loaded (and they did this in 4 scoops of the front hoe). I said that would heat my house for the rest of my life and he just laughed and said, "I never really thought about it like that before."

I really doubt they would fire en employee for selling that coal...it is probably looked upon as being a fringe benefit.

Reading this thread has made me really look into buying some tonnage of bit. It is easy for me to get bit in Richmond but the cost is comparable to anthracite. Now it is very good bit but I have a feeling the mark up on it is high! I want to get these $99-$100/ton prices! Now that's saving some money on heating! Now that I've learned to burn bit pretty well I wouldn't mind buying a few tons or maybe more. I just need to find the closest mine to get this stuff from any suggestions?

I just got some from a farmer in Cottage Grove MN for $125/ton. KY stoker sized bit. Gets a couple semi loads a year and then resells it.... Looks like nice stuff. We'll see how the stoker likes it.

OK well I just got back from 2 suppliers today.

I went to Cobra Mining in Barton, MD, and Country Coal in Somerset, PA.

I was going through this thread and working on a list of Bituminous suppliers. It is a work in progress. If there are some missing, let me know and I'll add them.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29193457/Bitum ... liers.xlsx

LDPosse wrote:OK well I just got back from 2 suppliers today.

I went to Cobra Mining in Barton, MD, and Country Coal in Somerset, PA.

I was going through this thread and working on a list of Bituminous suppliers. It is a work in progress. If there are some missing, let me know and I'll add them.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/29193457/Bitum ... liers.xlsx

This is really great! Thank you!