Coal tailings are a waste product of the coal mining process and consist primarily of gangue mineral matter and fine coal particles. In this study, coal tailings sourced from two Australian coal mines (Mine A and Mine B) were subjected to a slow pyrolysis process at temperatures of 400-800 degrees C to create char hereafter known as chailings. Chailings were originally conceptualized based on the concept of biochar and are a novel waste management strategy for coal tailings. Several methods were used to characterize chailings and quantify the effect of different pyrolysis conditions. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques identified the primary mineral constituents as silica (i.e., quartz) and aluminosilicates (i.e., kaolinite or illite). Clear morphologic changes were observed via optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for increasing pyrolysis temperature, with evidence of swelling and devolatilization apparent at high temperatures (>600 degrees C). Proximate analyses indicated near complete devolatilization was apparent at 800 degrees C for both mines, with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) revealing that peak devolatilization occurred at 455 degrees C for Mine A and 467 degrees C for Mine B. A substantial increase in surface area with increasing pyrolysis temperature was observed for Mine A chailings from 2.7 m(2)/g at 400 degrees C to 75.3 m(2)/g at 800 degrees C, because of the presence of microporosity, while Mine B chailings decreased from 2.4 m(2)/g at 400 degrees C to 1.2 m(2)/g at 800 degrees C, which was attributed to macroporosity and aggregation of particles. Properties of high-temperature (>600 degrees C) chailings, namely, surface area, porosity, and pH offer promise for future investigations regarding the application of chailings to soil.