Abstract: Land use change is an important factor in studying the changes in the ecological system pattern of mining areas and evaluating the quality of the ecological environment in mining areas. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of spatial and temporal changes in land use in Yili River Valley mineral district in Xinjiang, using 30 years of land use data, factors such as land use change rate, dynamics, transition rate, net change rate, and gravity center shift are analyzed. The driving mechanisms of land use are analyzed using nine influencing factors: slope, soil thickness, soil erosion, surface temperature, evapotranspiration, precipitation, elevation, organic matter content and gross domestic product（GDP） through a geographic detection model. The results show that grassland and unused land areas have decreased in the past 30 years, while cultivated land, forest land, construction land, and wetland areas have increased. The maximum change rate of land types occurred before 2010, and dynamicity exhibited similar characteristics. The net inflow rate of cultivated land, forest land, construction land, and wetland is generally greater than the net outflow rate, indicating that while the city expands, farmland increases, and the quality of forest and water ecosystem improves. The center of gravity of forest land and construction land is moving westward towards the mining area, while the ecological-related land types (cultivated land, grassland, wetland, and forest land) are moving eastward. Elevation and slope have the strongest effects on land use, and most factors promote land use change in common, with elevation being the most important factor among them.