MAHANOY CITY For five years in a row, Blaschak Coal Corp., one of the country's top anthracite producers, has achieved record sales tonnage. The 77-year-old company's prepared coal sales were more than 374,000 tons in 2014 up 16.5 percent from the previous year and 12 percent ahead of its annual sales forecast.

Sales expectations were exceeded in every major market served by Blaschak."We are very pleased with the sales numbers achieved this past year," said Greg Driscoll, president and CEO of Blaschak Coal Corp. "In particular, our business has been benefiting from the extreme winter weather in early 2014, current improvements in coal prices after a two-and-a-half year decline, as well as increased demand for Pennsylvania anthracite from export markets."This continued growth is testimony to our focus on consistent quality of product and commitment to do all we can to satisfy our customers' requirements. We are optimistic about maintaining a steady growth trajectory in 2015," Driscoll said.By successfully integrating production, processing and distribution, Blaschak is well primed for increasing capacity even further."We begin 2015 with a backlog of projects and opportunities that, when completed, will further expand our mining, processing and distribution capabilities," Driscoll said.Since its acquisition by Milestone Partners in 2009, Blaschak has acquired a new mine site and processing plant in Lattimer, as well as expanded investments to upgrade its mining, processing, packaging and distribution. The company has the current capacity to produce one million run-of-mine tons of anthracite, and its processing capability yields up to 450,000 prepared tons annually.Based in the heart of coal country in northeastern Pennsylvania, Blaschak sits atop one of the largest known anthracite fields in North America. According to the Pennsylvania Anthracite Council, there are 4 billion to 6 billion tons of reserves of anthracite left in the northeastern Pennsylvania region.