Abstract: During the utilization of coal resources, some heavy metal elements will be enriched in the environment, which is harmful to environment and human body. As a front-end treatment process for coal utilization, coal washing can remove most of the gangue in coal, but there are currently few studies on the migration of heavy metals in the washing process. Inner Mongolia low-ash, high-sulfur coal samples and high-ash, low-sulfur coal samples were selected for floatation and flotation tests, and heavy metal lead(Pb)was studied by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry(ICP-MS),X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence analysis and other test methods. The occurrence mode of Pb in the coal and the migration and enrichment behavior during coal washing process was investigated. The experimental results showed that the occurrence mode of Pb in coal samples with different ash content was quite different, which had a significant impact on the migration and enrichment behavior during the washing process. By chemical sequential extraction, the content of Pb in the organic bound state was little, about 5%,and the overall trend was to be enriched in minerals. In the float-and-sink test, Pb was easily enriched in higher density of 1.6-1.8 g/cm³ in the two coals. In the flotation test, Pb tended to be enriched in the tailings, and the change of Pb and ash content could maintain consistency. In addition, the changes in the content of lead and sulfur in the tailings of low-ash and high-sulfur coal showed a good consistency, but there was no such phenomenon in the low-sulfur coal with higher organic sulfur, indicating that lead was greatly affected by inorganic sulfur. It indicated that most of the Pb in coal could be removed by washing process, thereby improving the coal quality and reducing the harm of heavy metals in coal to the environment and human body.