Iron ores, fluxes and tuyere injected coals used as burden materials in the blast furnace have been characterised by chemical and granulometric analysis, moisture, density and porosity, softening and melting temperatures, reductibility, X-ray diffraction, electronic microscopy and thermoanalysis. Theoretical calculations on the influence of both the chemical composition and ash content of coals on some aspects of the blast furnace operation have been carried out. The combustion behaviour of pulverised coals in a pilot plant equipped with a combustion chamber has been studied to indicate what the behaviour of each type of coal will be, when injected in blast furnace tuyeres.