Abstract: As the Internet plus era and intelligence development are intensified in the new century,this research inves- tigates how coal mining copes with the advent of a new round of science and technology innovation by summarizing the history of coal mining and the technological development trends therein. A scientific concept of precise coal mining is proposed to meet the challenges and opportunities facing coal mining in China. By means of technologies including in- tellisense,intelligent control,the Internet of Things,cloud computing and big data,precise coal mining is proposed as a new future mining mode integrating intelligent mining technique with few workers(unmanned),and disaster prevention and control. This mode is based on transparent spaces and geophysics,as well as multi-field coupling to achieve spa- tial-temporal accuracy and efficiency. It is able to comprehensively consider factors relating mining under different geo- logical conditions,including mining influences,relevant factors inducing disasters,and ecological destruction caused by exploitation:it is able to enhance the automatisation,intelligentisation,and informatization levels of safe coal production which promotes the transformation of the coal industry from a labor-intensive,to a technology-intensive sector. The re- search proposes seven key scientific problems and eight major research directions for coal mining and therefore directs the technology route for future science-based mining with few people (unmanned) in the Internet plus era.