Anthracite, the highest rank of coal, is a hard mineral that contains the most carbon and fewest impurities of all coals.

Often referred to as hard coal or black coal, Anthracite is also the most metamorphosed coal, in which the carbon content is between 92.1% and 98%. The term is applied to those varieties of coal which do not give off tarry or other hydrocarbon vapors when heated below their point of ignition. Anthracite ignites with difficulty and burns with a short, blue, and smokeless flame.

Considered by some to be a transition stage between ordinary bituminous coal and graphite, Anthracite is produced by the complete elimination of the volatile constituents of the former. The coal is most abundant in areas that have been subjected to considerable earth-movements, such as the flanks of great mountain ranges. In fact, the Coal Region in our home state of Pennsylvania is holds the largest known deposits of Anthracite in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons.

With the growth of mini mills increasing the need for higher quality materials in the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), anthracite coal has become the injection carbon of choice for many top steel plants. Because scrap metal is the primary source of metal in the EAF there has been a limited variety of finished products a mini mill could produce. DRI pellets and other iron ore-based materials have been substituting or supplementing traditional scrap allowing for a greater variety of finished products produced in the EAF. As a result, only the cleanest, lowest sulfur, injection carbons can be used.

Anthracite is among the lowest sulfur materials available for injection and is the most environmentally friendly material due to its purity.