In order to alleviate the conflict between people and land, and promote the withdrawal of mining land, it is urgent to innovate the way mining land is used and explore the feasibility of “rent instead of expropriation”.Based on the connotation of “rent instead of expropriation” for opencast metal mining land, a “legal-economic-engineering” feasibility framework is constructed, and the Beiya Gold Mine in Yunnan Province is taken as an example for empirical analysis.The study show that opencast mining land is characterized by the short duration as the built-up land which is mismatched with the current mining land use system.Acquiring land for opencast mining through rent can improve the tripartite benefits for farmers, mining enterprises and the government.The reform at the Beiya Gold Mine is legally and economically feasible, with the engineering feasibility of Hongnitang section and the unsuitability of Wandongshan section.The paper recommendations are implementing differentiated management for different mine conditions and promoting varied land acquisition methods for mining land.Returning the original agricultural land with “equal quality” and the built-up land with “equal area” for solving the difficulty of returning the original land form during returning the mining land to safeguard the reasonable use and effectively exit from mining land.