North Grindstone mine closing

According to news reports the owners of the North
Grindstone mine near Industry Illinois will not be
renewing their operating permit and will close in May
2013. This mine is one of a very few that would allow
you to come with your truck or trailer .They sold stoker
$60 ton

Out here , western pa PBS laid off before christmas, and at least one strip mine closed early.

North Grindstone is closed as of 1/31/13. I picked up a semi load on the 29th and it was all shut down, just one worker there for two more days but still had a couple hundred ton. They are waiting on permitting to open a mine just a few miles south east of North Grindstone. It sounds like they will only have rom or raw coal. I do not understand if they are not moving the wash plant or what they are doing yet. They hope to open later this year. I like the coal from the Industry, IL area better than the coal from Knight Hawk (southern IL). That Knight Hawk coal seems to coke and swell together and leaves big clumps behind. The coal from Industry, IL leaves just a tiny bit of red ash behind.

Nice burning coal from North Grindstone, hope the new vein is as good. Only get about 5 five gal bucket of ash per 1000lbs

I never got the chance to try any of this coal. I live outside of Joliet, IL, which is close enough to drive and get some. How bad would this coal clinker?
Thanks, Ron

That's a shame because Industry is a lot closer to me than Knight Hawk. I also agree about the Knight Hawk coal clumping - I had a devil of a time with coke trees burning it. It's beautiful coal - from the Murphysboro seam, burns at 11,800 BTUs and contains 1.3 percent sulfur and 5.5 percent ash. When I was picking up a load, one of the guys there, Homer, said something to the effect that this coal had no business being in Illinois and was a rather isolated seam. It didn't clinker very well, either, so cleaning the fire was a chore.

Chris

europachris wrote:That's a shame because Industry is a lot closer to me than Knight Hawk. I also agree about the Knight Hawk coal clumping - I had a devil of a time with coke trees burning it. It's beautiful coal - from the Murphysboro seam, burns at 11,800 BTUs and contains 1.3 percent sulfur and 5.5 percent ash. When I was picking up a load, one of the guys there, Homer, said something to the effect that this coal had no business being in Illinois and was a rather isolated seam. It didn't clinker very well, either, so cleaning the fire was a chore.

Chris

Which Knight Hawk mine did you get coal from? I got a load of raw/rom from the Prairie Eagle Mine and not happy with it at all, just hard to burn and need to haul the ash and clinkers/clumps away with a bobcat. I haven't burned much of the larger pieces just the screenings and selling the lump.