Abstract To reduce the airflow velocity and improve the pneumatic conveying performance of lump coal particle, the pickup process and pickup prediction of lump coal particles with 5–15 mm diameters are firstly studied in this paper. The pickup velocity of lump coal particles were determined by the weight loss method and observed by a high speed camera. The results show that the pickup mechanism, the pickup process, and the variation in the weight loss curve of the lump coal particle are similar to the results of Geldart D particles and Geldart B particles. Notably, two observations are worth highlighting: (1) the pickup of lump coal particles is determined by the critical motion, namely, initial shaking and rolling, which are mainly affected by the disturbance of airflow, the disturbance of particle impact, and the disturbance of unstable-support; and (2) the K & R model has a favorable adaptability to large lump coal particles, and an exponential equation, based on the foundation of the K & R model and taking the dimensionless particle size into account, is employed to predict the pickup velocity of lump coal particles. The prediction deviations agree well with the experimental results. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Lump coal particles (5–15 mm) pickup process was studied. • Weight loss method was employed to determine the pickup velocity. • High speed camera was used to analysis pickup disturbance factors. • Effect of particle size on pickup velocity was regressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]