Considerable quantities of organic material, insoluble in common organic solvents, are known to be associated with the inorganic minerals present in oil sands. This insoluble organic matter (IOM) consists of both humic and non-humic components containing numerous oxygen functions. In this investigation IOM was beneficiated from a number of feedstocks using mineral dissolution techniques normally used for the isolation of kerogen concentrate from oil shales. The feedstocks included two different grades of Athabasca oil sand, three tailings stream fractions from oil sand plants in Alberta, and a sample of New Brunswick oil shale. The various fractions were analysed for elemental composition and then characterized by infrared and 13C n.m.r. methods. The elemental analyses have been discussed in terms of a van Krevelen diagram by plotting atomic ratios against atomic ratios. N.m.r. data have been used to calculate the aromaticities of various fractions.