A novel process for the preparation of ultra-clean micronized coal is presented in this paper. High pressure water jet mill replacing the ball mill is employed for coal comminution in the new preparation process, which is the essential difference from the traditional one. To compare the new preparation process with the traditional one, the comparison experiments were performed, with froth flotation tests of the fine particles ground by both mills using 0# diesel oil and n-dodecane as collector, 2-octanol as frother, and sink-float separation tests using mixtures of carbon tetrachloride-benzene and carbon tetrachloride-bromoform as dense liquid. Different parameters including combustible recovery, ash content of the clean coal, separation efficiency, and energy consumption were investigated based on the two different preparation processes. The results show that the new preparation process has high combustible recovery, low ash content of the product, high separation efficiency, and low energy consumption compared with the traditional one. The comminution mechanism of high pressure water jet mill is introduced in this paper. The high pressure water jet comminution technique has great potential in coal pulverization, having the advantages of low energy consumption, low iron content, and low equipment wear. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.