An efficient method is described for the recovery of wax from lignite tar by solvent extraction followed by isolation of the wax from the extract. Light petroleum (boiling range 60–80°C) was used as the solvent. Under optimum conditions (i.e. solvent:feed ratio = 4 and time of reflux 1 h at 70°C), up to 85% of the tar could be extracted. In the next stage, almost the entire amount of wax present in the extract was precipitated by first distilling off the solvent and then treating the residual tar oil with acetone at 10°C. The yield of wax was found to be 14.6% on a dry tar basis. The recrystallized wax was characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier transform i.r. and 1H n.m.r. spectroscopy and molecular weight determination. The studies revealed that the wax obtained from Indian lignite tar primarily consists of long-chain (∼C 30) paraffins together with small amounts of long-chain fatty acids and their esters, in addition to unsaturates of the type RCHCH 2; RCHCHR 1 and RR 1CCH 2.