Soil mineral matrix has a paramount influence in terms of global carbon reserve. Humin, fraction of soil organic matter (SOM), is a dominant fraction regarding storage of organic carbon, i.e., more than fifty percent of organic carbon in a soil is sequestered into humin. In general, humin is a mineral-organic matter complex. To understand the strong interactions of SOM with mineral matrix as in humin, mineral-humic acid (HA) complexes were studied in view of preferential binding of different functional moieties of SOM by kaolinite, montmorillonite, and goethite. Atomic ratio [(N+O)/C] data showed higher polarity of the unadsorbed HA fractions after coating on kaolinte and montmorillonite. This result explains that more hydrophobic fractions of the source HA are likely to be sorbed on both minerals. Our previous results also showed that organic carbon fractions with low polarity are sequestered in the mineral matrix of humin. From solid state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, paraffinic carbons were sorbed on both the clay minerals though higher on montmorillonite. Sorption of anomeric carbon was also observed on kaolinite surface. Carboxylic functionality was sorbed on goethite surface. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformed spectroscopy (DRIFT) results showed fractionation of HA on mineral surfaces. The DRIFT spectra of the unadsorbed HA fractions after coating on kaolinite and montmorillonite provided evidence for sorption of aliphatic moieties. DRIFT spectra of both kaolinite- and montmorillonite-HA complexes had aliphatic C-H stretching bands around 2926 cm^-1 and 2856 cm^-1, which revealed that aliphatic fractions were preferentially sorbed to the mineral surface. This is consistent with the observation that the humin fraction of SOM is rich in aliphatic moieties. Organic carbon sorption on minerals varies significantly with the nature of the minerals, which leads to preferential binding ability of one organic moiety of SOM over other.