GIRARD BREAKER
STANDARD SIZES OF COAL
RECLAMATION . . . PUTTING BACK THE LAND

In April of 2003, The Reading Anthracite Company relocated its coal processing operations to the Girard Breaker, located along Rt. 54 between Shenandoah and Girardville. This breaker serves as the "refinery" where coal is finally processed before distribution to the customer.

A highly motivated and well-trained workforce performs daily operation and maintenance of the Girard Breaker. The 250-ton per hour plant is operated and controlled from a central control room by an operator. The operator uses a computer program to control all aspects of the plant operation, maintaining consistent quality product throughout the day.

The raw coal as it comes from the stripping pits contains foreign matters - such as stone, shale, wood and dirt. These impurities are removed by passing the coal through a series of mechanical operations in which water and magnetite serves as a flotation vehicle.
After the washing and cleaning, the coal is separated into various sizes over different types of vibrating screens.

There are three main processing systems that produce nine different sizes of anthracite coal:
Course Coal Heavy Media Vessel - cleans and produces Stove, Nut, Pea and #1 Buckwheat sized coal
Heavy Media Cyclone - cleans and produces - Rice, Barley and #4 sized coal
Triple Start Cleaning Spirals process 100 mesh, #5 and #6 fine anthracite sized coal

Throughout the process, from raw coal mining through production, samples are collected of raw coal delivered to the plant. All sizes of the coal are analyzed at Reading Anthracite Testing Laboratory to insure that quality control standards are met.

The coal is then dewatered and lowered into waiting trucks. No human hand touches the coal during the cleaning operations, which are entirely mechanical. This permits preparation of coal to meet predetermined standards, insuring a high quality product to meet the needs of the home heating, commercial and industrial markets.