Abstract: The basic requirements of sustainable coal mining were described in detail from various aspects-safe mining, automatic mining,co-mining of coal and accompany resources,environment protection,direct cost reduction of mining, maximization of resource utilizing and sustainable planning. Overseas and domestic research status and progress of sus- tainable coal mining were introduced to make a comparative analysis for similarities and differences. Accordingly,the realization of domestic sustainable coal mining was proposed to focus on five aspects-technical development,ideological progress,optimization for laws and regulations,basic researches and talent cultivation. At last,coal mining was sugges- ted to be continuously studied from all ten aspects-mining including unloading and deviatoric stress,dynamic change in mining stress field,mechanical behavior of deep coal-rock mass,long-term strength of coal-rock pillar,stiffness of stope system,etc.