Giving locals a chance to learn about the industry that built the county, Reading Anthracite Co. held its Community Day on Saturday.
Jeff Gliem, director of operations at Reading Anthracite, said that 900 to 1,000 people made reservations for the event, which included a three-hour tour that gave people an inside look at the company's new St. Nicholas Plant at 46 West Mount Laffee Road near Duncott and the newly-opened West Spring Energy mine site in Locust Gap.
"How many employers can say they have an open house or a community day and you get 1,000 people," Gliem said. "I think it was an excellent turnout."
After parking at the St. Nicholas Plant, people were taken on a bus to the West Spring Slope in Locust Gap, which was mined at various times dating back to the 1900s and still has an abundance of high quality anthracite in close proximity to the surface.
A school bus was then taken to part of the site where people could see the company's new Komatsu PC4000-6 super shovel in use that was being unveiled Saturday.
The 29 cubic yard hydraulic excavator weighs 850,000 pounds.
During the school bus ride, Mark Pishock, general manager at West Spring, said that for every ton of coal that is pulled out of the ground, about 50 percent of it actually gets processed and turned into coal for furnaces.
"Where we're currently mining is what is known as the middle and bottom split of the Mammoth Vein," Pishock said.
As far as other veins on the property, he said the company needs to do more exploration before they can be mined.
The site consists of about 2,000 acres and the current first operation of the property is about 160 acres, which was the original permit for the area, but Reading Anthracite recently had a permit revision approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection to be able to expand the area.
"There's coal throughout the land here and we're going to be breaking it up into different jobs and different phases," Pishock said. "There's enough coal to last at least 25 or 30 years here, if not more."
On Saturday, visitors could see the shovel filling two 150-ton trucks with dirt and a water truck also in use.
Pishock said the company drills a hole through the rock then has a company, Maurer and Scott, come to perform blasting services, then they take the rock out.
When the site is fully staffed, Reading Anthracite plans to employ 42 people.
The second half of the tour took place at the St. Nicholas Plant, a fine coal plant that was retooled in 2007 and 2008.
It started processing coal in 2009 and has raw coal delivered by local mines operated by Reading Anthracite.
The raw coal is prepared for processing by screening and crushing to a 3/4-inch feed stock.
The plant consists of two cleaning systems, a heavy media cyclone and fine coal spiral system.
Lorraine Phillips, Auburn, could be seen at the plant Saturday and said she was enjoying the experience and seeing the large trucks since her husband works on them.
"We burn coal, so it's nice to know where it comes from," she said.
There were also food and drinks available for free and visitors could climb up on a 150-ton truck.