The purpose of the presented work is a thorough determination of the characteristics of the coastal sands in Vietnam for the subsequent study of their sorption capacity. The objects of the study are sand samples collected on the banks of the Hong River (near the capital Hanoi), ThuBon (Quang Nam Province), Thachhan (Quangchi Province) and on the sea coast near the city of Hatin. Various industrial and agricultural enterprises are located in these places, in addition, the travel industry is actively developing here. The subject of the study is the granulometric characteristics of sand and its mineralogical composition. To study the mineralogical composition of sand samples the method of X-ray phase analysis is used, which allows to determine the mineralogical composition of the studied samples on the basis of the X-ray images obtained. It has been found that the mineral α-quartz SiO2 prevails in their composition, and there is also a certain amount of α-corundum Al2O3 as well as other impurities. To study the granulometric characteristics of the sands, the standard method of sieve analysis is used. The proportions of various fractions of sand samples, the average grain size, uniformity coefficient, bulk weight, porosity, as well as the specific surface area have been determined.