We wish to suggest a structure for ash containing high concentrations of heavy metals in which important metallic rearrangements occur during combustion and solidification. The ash consists of three main phases, namely corundum, mullite, and amorphous aluminosilicate. During ash evolution, Cr3+ ions replace Al3+ in its octahedral sites of corundum/mullite, whereas Pb2+ and Cd2+ either fill the oxygen vacancy in mullite or form stable compounds with the glass phase. These changes promote a clear pattern revealing surface predominance of alkalis and fore predominance of toxic metals within the ash particle. A composite picture of the metals rearrangements in an inorganic environment was obtained by the combination of independent analytical techniques, including electron probe microanalysis, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and x-ray diffractometry. Although we simulated ash formed during combustion of de-inking paper mill waste, its chemical composition resembled that of ash from cool. It suggests the possibility that elemental surface vs. core segregation and Cr3+ --> Al3+ replacement may be a general phenomenon in inorganic particles derived from high temperature processes followed by solidification for which diffusion and subsequent condensation of elements are likely to occur.