Due to their different mass and varying charge states, heavy solar ions provide invaluable information on the physical mechanisms responsible for the heating of the corona and the solar wind acceleration. It is shown in the present work that some key characteristics observed in the corona are straightforward features predicted by the velocity filtration effect. This mechanism originally proposed by Scudder (1992a,b) accounts for the heating of the corona by just assuming that the velocity distribution functions have enhanced supra-thermal tails. The apparent 'heating' is then a natural consequence of the increasing ratio of supra thermal over thermal particles as a function of altitude. Applied to the minor ions, it offers a natural explanation for the high temperatures of the heavy ions compared to the protons. The kinetic filtration theory predicts temperatures more than proportional to the mass of the ions, with a small correction for the charge state. With sufficiently high temperatures, the ions flow faster than the protons. These characteristics are in good agreement with the most recent spectroscopic and in-situ solar wind observations.