Anthracite Specimens of anthracite coal a hard lustrous sedimentary rock derived from vegetable debris Anthracite is a slowburning relatively smokeless fuel which gives out intense heat and is used in the production of coal gas and in the iron steel and synthetic rubber industries It occurs in Paleozoic rocks million years ago in particular the Carboniferous of North America Appalachian Mountains and Europe and the Permian of China Siberia and Australia This sample comes from south eastern British Columbia Canada