At present, coal still accounts for an important proportion of the world’s energy but is not considered to be clean energy. Researchers and engineers in the field of coal mining are actively responding to the challenge of this environmental problem, and the behaviour and composition of fluids in coal mining has become a research hotspot. In the process of coal mining, a large amount of solid waste, mine water, and gas are produced, which can damage the geological environment. The main challenges faced in researching this process include the complex migration mechanism of related geological fluids (mainly including water and gas) in the process of coal mining, the inaccurate evaluation of geological fluids (mainly including water and gas) affected by coal mining, and the difficulty of effective implementation of geological environment protection and restoration engineering practices.

Some of the more common challenges faced by researchers include how to engage in water-preserved coal mining, co-mining of coal and gas, reducing gangue discharge, solving the issue of water quality in coal mining, treating mine water (specifically radium, suspended matter, heavy metals and mineralisation), investigating the migration laws of gas and water in the process of coal mining, and whether coal gangue filling mining is feasible. It is important that researchers urgently come up with solutions to these problems, in order to develop more environmentally friendly coal mining techniques.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together submissions that address some of the current challenges, including those mentioned above, that have been encountered by researchers in both academia and industry in this field. We welcome both original research and review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Water-preserved coal mining
• Co-mining of coal and gas
• Paste backfill coal mining
• Mine water treatment and utilisation, specifically radium, suspended matter, heavy metals, and mineralisation in water treatment
• Water quality issues related to coal mining
• Gas drainage and utilisation
• Gob-side entry retaining
• Damage reduction coal mining technology
• Monitoring and evaluation technology in green mining
• Ecological restoration technology after coal mining
• Influence evaluation of geofluids in coal mining