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tons, Duane Feagley, executive director of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Council, predicted in late January. "Everybody is selling every- thing they're producing," he said. Final 2014 production figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration were not yet available in late January. Feagley, however, said the state's anthracite output was expected to fall below its benchmark 2 million tons last year. Nevertheless, British-based Atlantic Coal plc said in late January its Stockton surface mine in Luzerne County enjoyed a record production year in 2014, turning out 165,052 tons, an increase of more than 8% from the 2013 figure of 151,265 tons. Since last fall, Pennsylvania anthracite has been in hot demand from overseas customers largely because of the continuing conflict in the Ukraine, and inquiries about the avail- ability of the coal has been flooding company offices in places like Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, where Blaschak Coal is head- quartered. "We've heard from India, Turkey, Egypt," Blaschak President and CEO Greg Driscoll said on a cold January day when he fielded a request from Bangladesh. "This is the first I can recall from Bangladesh," said a slightly surprised Driscoll. "As the Ukranian conflict has gone on since last summer, we've seen an ever-broad- ening interest by users of anthracite around the world," he added. "A number of requests are directly from Ukraine, but [customers] are looking for power plant coal, which is not our game." Anthracite, particularly overseas, also is used in steel production. According to Feagley, his industry's bread and butter remains the lucrative home heat- ing market. Thousands of people in north- eastern Pennsylvania and surrounding areas still burn anthracite to heat their homes in the winter, with the heating season loosely run- ning from October to March. What anthracite producers do not sell for home heating main- ly moves to the industrial market. MSHA: Dust Levels Continue Downward Trend The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Admini- stration (MSHA) has released new data from coal dust samplings from across the country indicating that levels hit a new low over 2014 and that nearly all samples complied with new federal regulations. Between August 1, 2014, when the new final rule took effect, through December 31 – the timeline that represented the outlines' first phase – more than 23,600 dust samples were collected and about 99% of them were in compliance. Of the total respirable dust samples col- lected in the five-month period, 17,949 were taken from 319 underground mines; 252 of those samples (or 1.4%) exceeded compli- ance levels used to determine if a violation is warranted. The final rule, "Lowering Miners' Exposure to Respirable Coal Mine Dust, Including Continuous Personal Dust Monitors," significantly increased operator sampling for respirable coal mine dust and also now requires operators to take immedi- ate corrective action when an operator's sample shows excessive concentrations. Additionally, MSHA now has authorization to cite operators based on single MSHA samples showing excessive dust, rather than on an average of samples. n e w s c o n t i n u e d February 2015 www.coalage.com 55