Gas temperature, reactant concentrations, graphite burnup, and burning velocity have been measured close to the lean limit of CH 4-air-graphite mixtures on a low-pressure, premixed laminar flame burner. The graphite dust was of about 4 μm diameter. These experiments suggest a gas temperature of 1550 K at the lean flammability limit. This is the basis of a chemical kinetic model for fine coal dust combustion that assumes CH 4 to be devolatilized from coal and gas phase reaction to be dominant. Computed relationships of the dependence of lean limit coal concentration on the proportion of volatile matter in the coal agree well with those of experiments. The model also yields values of laminar burning velocity over a wide range of coal concentrations and volatile contents.