The contents of inorganic elements (Si, Al, K, Ti, Na, Mg, Ca, Fe, Sr, P, F, CI) and total sulfur in coals collected from the Ashibetsu bituminous coal seams were studied with respect to their mineralogy. The correlation between Si and ash contents was the highest because Si is contained in quartz and all aluminosilicate minerals abundant in the coal samples. Most of the Al is contained as aluminosilicate minerals, although a minor fraction is present as goyazite and boehmite. K exists as an interlayer cation in illite, K-smectite and/or illite/smectite (I/S) mixed-layer clay minerals. Ti is thought to exist as anatase and it also exists in clay minerals substituting for Al. The variation of Na content depends on the existence of Na-bearing minerals such as palgioclsae, smectite and I/S mixed-layer clay minerals. Although Mg is primarily associated with carbonate minerals, a good correlation between Mg and ash contents was obtained for the coal samples containing Mg-bearing clay minerals such as illite, smectite, K-smectite and I/S mixed-layer clay minerals. Most of the Ca exists as calcite and ankerite, although some occur in apatite, dolomite and plagioclase. A comparatively high correlation coefficient between Ca and Mg is caused by the great abundance of ankerite. Fe occurs mostly in carbonate minerals (ankerite and siderite) and in pyrite. The presence of several samples containing higher amounts of pyrite and iron sulfate minerals resulted in a high correlation between Fe and S. The higher correlation of Ca with P for the coal samples which are relatively rich in apatite indicates that a significant amount of Ca exists as apatite. A substantial number of the coal samples were rich in P and Sr. P occurs as apatite and goyazite but Sr occurs only as goyazite. Since the origins of apatite and goyazite are similar to those of phosphate minerals, the correlation coefficient between P and Sr is very high. Apatite is thought to exist mostly as fluorapatite since the coal samples contain enough F to form fluorapatite. Both inorganic and organic Cl appear to exist, although the total Cl content is low. The relatively high correlation coefficients of Cl with Na, the other silicate related elements and ash suggest that inorganic Cl was incorporated into the coal seams in clay minerals.