Anthracite of anthracite coal consumed in the United States averages 25 million Btu/ton (29 MJ/kg), on the as-received basis (i.e., containing both inherent moisture and mineral matter). Since the 1980s, anthracite refuse or mine waste has been used for coal power generation in a form of recycling. The practice known as reclamation is being applied to culm piles antedating laws requiring mine owners to restore lands to their approximate original condition. Chemically, anthracite may be considered as a transition stage between ordinary bituminous coal and graphite, produced by the more or less complete elimination of the volatile constituents of the former,
Anthracite iron States, in the principal control and supervision of Ironmaster David Thomas who had begun experimenting with attempts to use locally available Wales anthracite deposits as early as 1820 soon after he became in charge at Yniscedewin Iron Works in Wales. About this 1837-38 timeframe experiments were also being made in Pennsylvania near Port Carbon, and in Mauch Chunk, but with overall better success than in Wales. White, Hazard and the LC&N Co. had begun systematic experiments to smelt using anthracite in two furnaces in Mauch Chunk in 1832-1837 with intermittent but sporadically improved successes using cold blast processes with two