Links between extents of coal gasification and the amounts and compositions of mineral components in coals have been investigated. The influence of demineralisation and impregnation with various inorganic components on the pyrolysis and CO2-gasification behaviour of two coals have been examined at 0.1 and I MPa. The effect of mineral matter on pyrolysis and gasification behaviour has also been examined by correlating actual conversions of a calibration set of 23 coal samples with the mineral matter-related bands of their FT-IR spectra. Whilst mineral matter contents clearly affect conversions during gasification, results from this work show that it is difficult to find systematic patterns, regarding the effect of specific inorganic components in different coals. The prediction of catalytic activity from amounts and compositions of particular inorganic components appears unlikely to be feasible. These findings confirm the difficulty of relating information on original structural features of coals to weight loss during gasification.