Coal seams can enrich a variety of key metal elements under specific geological conditions, and thus form "coal- type key metal deposits" with comprehensive utilization value. With the increasing development of the extraction technology of associated metal elements in coal, it is of great resource significance to study the enrichment and distribution characteristics of metal elements in coal and to identify the target areas or coal seams for elements with economic importance. Based on previous published literatures in the past 20 years and the author's recent test data for coals from Guizhou province of China, this study conducts statistics on geochemical data of 1002 samples from 23 major coal- producing areas in Guizhou, and reveals the overall distribution and enrichment characteristics of some critical elements such as Li, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, U and rare earth elements (REY) in Guizhou coal. The research shows that Li, Zr, Nb, REY are relatively rich in Guizhou coal, and the areas with the metallogenic potential of coal- type key metal deposits are the Northern Guizhou coalfield and the Xingyi coalfield. Specifically, the average content of Li in Jinsha, Tongzi, and Pu'an coals converted to ash- based Li2O content is 1254 μg/g, 1214 μg/g and 724 μg/g, respectively. The average content of Zr in Wuchuan and Zheng'an coals is 4749 μg/g and 4168 μg/g respectively after converting to ash- based ZrO2 content. The ash- based Nb2O5 in Wuchuan coal is as high as 484.4 μg/g, and the ash- based rare earth oxides in Jinsha, Tongzi, Wuchuan and Kaili coals are 2175 μg/g, 2429 μg/g, 2875 μg/g and 2604 μg/g, respectively. These content values described above all exceed the minimum industrial grades for the corresponding deposits or the available levels suggested by the literature. It can be seen that various metal elements in Guizhou coal have relatively high background values, especially in some mining areas of Xingyi coalfield and Qianbei coalfield. Therefore, the author suggests that coal geochemical research and geological exploration of the above two coalfields should be further strengthened to reveal the temporal and spatial distribution and enrichment laws of these trace elements, and provide scientific basis for the prospecting and exploration of coal- type key metal deposits. The enrichment of elements such as Li, U, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf and REY abnormally enriched in the late Permian coals of Guizhou is mainly due to the supply of weathering products of the Emeishan basalt, the mixing of syndepositional volcanic ash, and the low temperature heat after the coal- forming period. The effect of fluid action. Among them, the enrichment of REY is not only related to basalt weathering products, but also may be affected by the input of felsic—neutral substances.