A coal breaker is a coal processing plant which breaks coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also remove impurities from the coal and deposit them into a culm dump. The coal breaker is a forerunner of the modern coal preparation plant.

Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highest ranking of coals.