Abstract: The ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin is fragile and mineral resources are abundant. It is very important to establish the ecological compensation mechanism for mineral resources development to coordinate mineral resources development and ecological environment protection. This paper analyzes the connotation and necessity of ecological compensation for mineral resources development in the Yellow River Basin, sorts out the policy and legal basis for the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism for mineral resources development in the Yellow River Basin, and conducts in-depth research on the key issues involved. The results show that the ecological compensation of mineral resources development in the Yellow River Basin is the compensation for the economic loss caused by the increased cost of green mining development or the restriction of mineral resources development, including the vertical compensation of the central government to the local area and the horizontal compensation of the downstream to the upstream. The establishment of ecological compensation mechanism for mineral resources development is an important way to coordinate ecological security and energy and resource security in the Yellow River Basin at the national level, and is a task branch under the background of establishing horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the whole basin. At present, the establishment of ecological protection compensation mechanism in the Yellow River Basin has a certain legal and policy basis, but for the ecological compensation of mineral resources development, there are difficulties such as insufficient institutional supply, the scope needs to be refined, the standard needs to be clarified, the method is slightly single, and the funding source is relatively narrow. It is believed that the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism for mineral resources development in the Yellow River Basin needs to clarify the scope and standard of ecological compensation, build implementation platform simultaneously, standardize fund raising, and explore diversified compensation methods. At the same time, in order to promote the implementation of the ecological compensation mechanism for mineral resources development in the Yellow River Basin, it is also necessary to mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties to participate in ecological protection, and relevant departments need to further accelerate the construction of specific regulations and rules, and improve the ecological protection compensation system and work system to provide refined institutional supplies.