Abstract: The article analyzed the present situation of reserves of coal resources and exploitation, and presented that the coal mine in China had come into the time of deep exploitation and would soon come into 1000-meter-below exploitation time, when the construction of deep coal mine would have the tendency of upsizing, intensification and modernization. The status quo and difficulty of excavation in deep roadway showed that the traditional drilling and blasting method or road header can’t meet the requirements of safety and fast-speed in construction of large-scale deep coal mine below 1000 meters under complicated conditions, such as high in-situ stress, high geothermal energy, and so on. Based on the real situation of the deep roadway and various advantages of TBM in other forms of underground engineering, application of TBM in deep coal mine construction is put forward, and construction cases of TBM in coal mine are summarized. Finally, a series of key problems are presented based on the complexities of geological environments and mechanical behavior of deep rock mass.

Key words: deep coal mine, rock roadway, tunnel boring machine, mixed strata