The adsorption of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on quartz, kaolinite, illite, montmorillonite and iron oxides were investigated by batch equilibrium techniques. The pH-dependence isotherms are curves with a peak value, whose position is at about pH=5～6 depending on the mineral species. Based on the distribution of both speciation of surface hydroxyls on minerals and PCP in solution, the authors put forward a surface reaction model involving surface complexation and surface electrostatic attraction to fit the pH-dependence isotherms, and calculated both reaction constants. The results show that on quartz and phyllosilicate minerals the predominant adsorption reaction is surface complexation, whereas both surface electrostatic attraction and surface complexation are involvedin the iron oxide minerals. The reaction constants of surface electrostatic adsorption are usually one to three orders of magnitude larger than that of surface complexation. The concentration-dependence isotherms can be well fitted by Langmuir equation with correlation coefficient R>0.93 for kaolinite and iron oxides.The maximum adsorption has been found in order of hematite>lepidocrocite>goethite>kaolinite>quartz>montmorillonite≈illite, which can be interpreted by consideration of both reaction mechanism and surface hydroxyl density. The significant adsorption of PCP on mineral surfaces suggests that clay and iron oxide mineralscan play an important role as HIOCs adsorption in laterite or latertoid soil, which is widely spread in south China.