Abstract: Due to the factors of resource conditions and technical level,a large number of residual coal resources have been remained during the past several decades in China.We estimated the residual coal reserves which had been detained from 1949 to 2014 in China,and predicted the distribution,occurrence conditions and coal properties of these resources.According to the causes and characteristics,residual coal resources are divided into five types:"under three" resources,thin seam,protective coal pillar,resources unable to be exploited with complex conditions,goaf.Between 1949 and 2014,Chinese had cumulatively produced 66.62 billion tons of coal,not including Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan,in which the output of open-pit and underground mining occupy 6.47% and 93.53%,respectively.Furthermore,We estimated the current residual coal reserves of China,which had achieved 139.08 billion tons,whose 99.45% (138.32 billion tons) were formed from the remains of underground mining,and the average recovery rate of resources for all types of coal mines was only 32.39%.The residual coal resources are most distributed in north China (38.86%),mainly located in the buried depth area less than 800 m (85.50%),and primarily bituminous (76.23%).