Abstract: In order to determine the reasonable production capacity of mining areas, the concept of environmental restorative cost is introduced. The environment of coal mining areas has the ability to repair itself when it is damaged, and the environmental cost of mining coal per ton is certain within the flexible scope of its self-healing capacity. But once beyond the scope, environmental restorative costs will have a sharp increase, and the coal production corresponding to the sharply increasing point is the production which the environment can carry. This requires a series of production statistics and environmental quality assessments. An environmental quality assessment should give to the mining area each year, and if the evaluation is qualified, the coal production X and the environmental cost of coal per ton will be collected to analysis, then the ratios Y of the environmental cost of coal per ton and coal price per ton should be calculated based on years of dates which considering the impact of coal prices, then curves of Y and X should be draw, and the coal production corresponding to the sharply increasing point of the curves is the production which the environment can carry. Fenxi mining area is used as an instance for research, and the determined coal production capacity has a significant importance in the environment-friendly sustainable development.

Key words: reasonable production capacity, environmental restorative cost, environment of mining areas, environmental quality assessment