Major, trace, rare-earth elements, and noble metal have been analyzed from the brown coal of the Amur region (Russian Federation) and coal combustion products to understand the provenance and depositional environment. It was discussed that weathering crusts of ore deposits and host rocks located in the mountain-folded frame of the Zeya-Bureya coal-bearing sedimentary basin were the main source of mineral substance and chemical elements in brown coals. The distribution of minerals and elements inside the forming coal seams was influenced by the type of vegetation incorporated into coal-forming peat mires bog by catastrophic floods along the existed hydraulic network, the physicochemical parameters of plant debris transformation during their conversion to coal, as well as the sorption properties of inclusions and interlayer of bitumen and humic acids in coal beds. An experimental technological complex was created to study the microelements transfer process in the dust-gas stream and the distribution of rare earth and trace elements separately in varieties of coal combustion products (slag, fly ash, dustlike part of the dust-gas flow, and technogenic cleaning water). The resulting combustion products of coal have been studied by inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-spectrometry methods (ICPmass spectrometry and ICP-atomic emission spectroscopy). Sample preparation technique for analysis was improved to determine the elemental composition. It was established that more than 60% of trace and rare earth elements were concentrated in ash and sludge. Data on these

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A bulk coal sample from the Erkovetsky deposit is studied at Amur experimental and engineering facility. Separate fractions of coal combustion products (slag, fly ash, and sludge) are obtained for the first time, in which the morphology, fineness of gold and composition of inclusions have been studied. A consistent decrease in gold size and content is determined after coal combustion, transportation in a gas-smoke stream, and subsequent condensation. A comparative analysis of gold in the combustion products of coal and in ore bodies of the mountain-folded framing of the Zeya-Bureya basin is carried out, the ways of gold migration to peat bogs are considered.

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