The nature of the association of major, minor, and trace elements with coal has been the subject of intensive research by coal scientists (Swaine; and references cited therein). Density gradient centrifugation (DGC) offers a technique with which ultrafine coal particles can be partitioned into a density spectrum, portions of which represent nearly pure monomaceral concentrates. DGC has been typically conducted on demineralized coals assuring, particularly at lower specific gravities, that the resulting DGC fractions would have very low ash contents. In order to determine trends in elemental composition, particularly with a view towards maceral vs. mineral association, it is necessary to avoid demineralization. To this end the low-ash, low-sulfur Blue Gem coal bed (Middle Pennsylvanian Breathitt Formation) from Knox County, Kentucky, was selected for study. The objective of this study was to determine the petrography and chemistry, with particular emphasis on the ash geochemistry, of DGC separates of lithotypes of the Blue Gem coal bed.