Pearson Coal Petrography provides microscopic evaluations  of  coking coal and steam coal from laboratories located in Canada, the United States, and Australia.

The Victoria laboratory, in British Columbia, opened in 1981 to service the coal mines in the Rocky Mountains of western Canada. In February 1998, we opened our first US laboratory, in South Holland, Illinois. This was followed in May 2005, by our Catlettsburg laboratory, in Kentucky. Our newest laboratory which opened in January 2008, is located at the port of Mackay, in tropical central Queensland, Australia.

From the two U.S. locations, we provide automated petrographic technology to the world’s most advanced non-recovery coke oven batteries operated by SunCoke Energy: to Haverhill North Coke Company, at Franklin Furnace, Ohio;  and to Indiana Harbor Coke Company, at East Chicago, Indiana.  Our laboratories analyze coking coals and blends that comprise 25% of the total US production of metallurgical coke.

Our newly-relocated South Holland laboratory is in south Chicago, not far from ArcelorMittal’s Indiana Harbor plant. Catlettsburg laboratory is located at Arch Coal Terminal, on the Big Sandy River, a major tributary of the Ohio River at Ashland, Kentucky. There, a major client is Standard Laboratories. The Mackay laboratory is located close to the world’s largest coking coal terminals – Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay, on the edge of the Bowen Basin, Australia’s principal coking coal resource.

Our laboratories use state-of-the-art sample preparation equipment, including multiple Buehler Simplimet automatic pelletizers with duplex molds, for consistent ISO sample preparation, and automated Buehler Ecomet/Automet polishing equipment for rapid high-quality polished coal surfaces. Our microscope inventory includes thirteen Leitz MPV-Compacts, seven Leitz MPV-SP’s, and three Leitz MPV-2 photometer-Orthoplan combinations, that are used for manual petrographic analyses – Maceral analysis and Vitrinite Reflectance measurements, to ASTM-, ISO-, or Australian Standards. In addition, each laboratory has Zeiss Universal microscopes with high-resolution CCD image sensors that are used for the daily automated analysis of coking coals and blends, and for Reflectance Profiling – Fingerprinting your coals. We have seven automated Fingerprinting systems. All laboratories participate in the US-based CPA quarterly Round-Robin analyses, to assure quality consistency among our operations. Our Petrographers possess ICCP Accreditation.

Computing facilities in the laboratories are linked by High Speed Virtual Private Networks, and provide clients with on-line results, run-charts of sample statistics, and graphical displays of sample qualities.

Our Professional Petrographers include Diana Riggs, Manager of the Catlettsburg laboratory; Sandra Dixon, Manager of the Mackay laboratory.

Jen Pearson is Vice President of Finances, and Honorary Treasurer of ICCP. Rich Pearson is Vice President of Operations, manages all vital communications servers and all other IT services including software development, as well as Operational Strategies. Dave Pearson is Founder and Company President, and is Canada’s representative to the International Standards Organization ISO/TC27 Working Group 19 (Coal Petrography), responsible for the recent revision of ISO7404 “Methods for the petrographic analysis of coals”.

Our clients include:-

Contact information:-