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Fifty-four surface sediments from the typical coal mining area were analyzed for pristane, phytane and C 8 -C 40 n-alkanes using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The spatial distribution, homolog profiles and source apportionment of aliphatic hydrocarbons were investigated. Bimodal distribution pattern, centered at C 16 -C 20 and C 27 -C 33 n-alkanes, were observed in all sediment samples with an obvious dominance of low molecular weight homologues. Principal component analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR) was used to predict the contributions of different sources. The result implied that natural input was the main source, contribution of which accounted for 60.8%, and the contributions of different sources were estimated as follow: 21.8% for terrestrial higher plants, 24.1% for algae and photosynthetic bacteria, 14.9% for submerged/floating macrophytes, 23.5% for fossil fuel combustion and 15.7% for petroleum hydrocarbons. Moreover, relatively high median concentrations of fossil fuel combustion were observed in Shou County and Fengtai County, indicating the high contribution of fossil fuel combustion in these two areas. Keywords Surface sediment • Huaihe River • Coal mining • Aliphatic hydrocarbons • Principal component analysismultiple linear regressionCoal is a major source of hydrocarbons in sediments, including n-alkanes, pristane, and phytane (Ahad et al. 2011;Barrick et al. 1984). Huainan coalfield is a well-known coalfield in the Huaihe River Basin, where the exploitation