The concentrations of the rare earth elements （REEs） in 371 Permian coal samples taken from 11 coal seams of three depositional formations in Zhuji Coal Mine, Huainan Coalfield were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The geochemical characteristics of REEs in coal were discussed and its geological implication was investigated. The total concentration of REEs ranges from 86×10-6 to 143×10-6 with an average value of 112×10-6. On average, the REEs concentrations in coals of Upper and Lower Shihezi Formations are higher than Shanxi Formation by 38% and 25%, respectively, which is suggested to relate the difference of respective depositional environment. Coals in three formations show similar REEs distribution, and are characterized by enrichment of light REEs and depletion of heavy REEs. The distribution of light REEs is steep and heavy REEs is rather flat. Moderate Eu negative anomaly (an average of 0.59 for δ Eu in range of 0.52 ~ 0.80) and absence of Ce anomaly (an average value for δ Ce is 0.99 in range of 0.93 ~ 1.04) were observed for all the samples, which suggests weak influence of seawater on terrestrial detritals-dominated coal-forming swamp. Positive but insignificant correlation (R=0.59) of REEs vs. ash yields was seen in bivariate plot, demonstrating co-existence of inorganic and organic affinities for REEs. The XRD mineral analysis and petrographic observation show that REEs were possibly incorporated into the inorganic clays such as kaolinite. In addition, cluster analysis shows that REEs were grouped together with terrigenous elements such as Si, Al, Ti, Ni, Sc and Se rather than marine elements (B, Sr and Ca).