Quality of Anthracite Coal, "Now Vs. Then"

I read thru the story of the Huber Breaker and couldn't believe that in the later years that the strip mined coal was 40-80% rock and unburnable bone,how could it be economical to process such poor quality coal? They would have been better off in the aggregate business than selling coal.

Is the strip mined anthracite coal now of that poor quality? I bought some " B " brand coal, nut size, in January and it has a very high ash content probably about 20%, which is not acceptable for a quality product. The strip mined coal has a lot of unburnables in it and they are not removed at the breaker and are passed on in the finished coal. Do others feel that too much ash is left after processing or did I get a bad batch of coal?

What are the industry specifications for ash in the final product? Are the underground mined coal of a better quality? Where do you get them,which breaker uses mostly deep mined coal?

BigBarney