稀有、稀散、稀土和稀贵等战略性关键元素是用于国民经济和军事国防中的重要原料，发挥着不可替代的作用。随着传统矿床的逐渐枯竭和开采难度加大，煤炭和煤灰中伴生关键元素资源的综合勘探开发和利用越来越受到重视，有望成为一种兼具可循环利用和环境保护双重价值的新型理想替代资源。将煤型战略关键微量元素的地球化学特征及资源化利用作为一个整体，系统阐述了锂、镓、锗、稀土和贵金属等代表性“四稀”战略关键元素含量测定和赋存状态的常用分析方法，在中国煤中的分布富集、赋存状态与地球化学机理，分析了它们从煤到煤灰中的迁移转化和化学形态特征，并对重要关键元素提取过程中的活化浸出、尤其是富集提纯方法进行了总结，最后提出了一些该领域中存在的问题和今后研究应关注的方向，以期为煤及煤灰作为战略关键元素潜在资源进行开发利用的相关理论和技术研究提供科学参考。

Rare-metal, rare-scattered, rare-earth and noble-rare elements are strategically critical resources and important raw materials used in national economy, military, and defense,and play an irreplaceable role. With the gradual depletion of traditional mineral deposits and the increasing difficulty of mining, more and more attention has been paid to the comprehensive exploration, exploitation, and utilization of associated critical elements in coal and coal ash, which are expected to become promising alternative sources with dual values of recycling and environmental protection. Considering the geochemical characteristics and utilization of coal-related strategically critical trace elements as a whole,the paper systematically reviews the analytical methods of content and occurrence mode of these elements such as lithium, gallium, germanium, rare earth and precious metal, as well as their distribution, enrichment, modes of occurrence in Chinese coal and corresponding geochemical mechanism. Furthermore, their migration and chemical morphological transformation during coal combustion are elaborated, and the approaches of activation, leaching, followed by enrichment and purification for the extraction of typical critical elements are summarized. At last, some existing problems and future research directions in this field are put forward. This review may provide scientific reference for theoretical and technical research on the exploitation and utilization of coal and coal ash as potential resources of strategically critical elements.