Coal is the main source of energy in China and has a crucial strategic position in the economic and social development of the country. The coal industry, as an important basic industry, affects the economic development of China, and the construction of large coal bases has played a major supporting role in improving the security of China's coal supply. Traditional coal industry development have resulted in numerous problems and raised issues that demand attention, including over-extended production, frequent accidents and other safety concerns, serious depletion of resources, environmental degradation, pollution, and inadequate environmental management training. The coal industry significantly promotes national and regional ecological and socio-economic sustainable development through the creation and management of attractive and healthy mining areas, and by ensuring regional and national ecological capacity to strengthen mine ecological restoration. This then helps to extract and use coal resources while concomitantly promoting environmental protection. The conceptual framework of large-scale, coal base construction is essentially as follows: (1) a mining area is developed by a business entity that promotes annexation and reorganization of allied enterprises; (2) a large-scale coal enterprise group is established as the main development body; and (3) the integration of upstream and downstream industrial development is encouraged, with the aim to nurture, develop and maintain the industry through a focus on circular economic development. This study briefly outlines the development processes of 14 large coal bases from the 1950s, and based on the resource conditions, development status and location aspects, these large coal bases were examined under six themes: key construction, strength and growth, control and growth, coal-electricity integration, dramatic improvement, and orderly growth. We present a series of ecological problems that were brought about by coal extraction, including surface subsidence, soil salinization, vegetation degradation, groundwater pollution, groundwater recession, and emissions from coal exploitation. As a result of land degradation, structural ecological defects and other issues caused by coal base operations, major integrated technology systems are required to promote ecological restoration on large coal bases. The goal is to recover and improve the function of the ecosystem by using measures such as comprehensive technology and engineering and biological intervention. Traditional mining methods have been based on principles of "exploitation first and control after" or "exploitation only without control". This has been harmful to the function and subsequent restoration of the ecosystems of large coal bases. Therefore, ecological restoration should accompany the entire process of coal mining, with tracking and restoration during coal mine setup, construction and operation periods, through to the mining area governance period. From the perspective of ecological restoration and environmental management, this paper expounds key ecological restoration technology systems, including land reclamation technologies (engineering reclamation and biological reclamation), surface water repair methodologies, groundwater remediation practices, and atmospheric environmental recovery techniques. Finally, this paper puts forward recommendations under six themes for achieving coordinated and sustainable development of large coal bases in China.