On the past three world conferences on Ecological Restoration, mine ecosystem has been continuously listed as one of main themes. The objective of this paper is to explore the latest advances of ecological restoration in mining area. By using the methods of literature analysis and statistical analysis, it compared abstracts and presentations in the three conferences with regards to participating countries, major research institutions, hot mine sites, restoration elements, mine categories, restoration technology, and so on. On this basis, it firstly summarized the new ecological technologies to restore vegetation, soil, and landscape. Then, it introduced the current research hotspots such as the mechanism of interaction between restored soil and plants, new technology in monitoring ecological restoration, maintenance of native species, methods for rehabilitating the contaminated soil, new thought on the ecological restoration against climate change, and the ecosystem service value in mining areas. Moreover, it set forth the new perspectives emerged on those conferences, including new standards for selection of natural restoration and artificial restoration, new theory of ecological resilience, novel ecosystem and its designing in the context of mining area. At last, future research advances were discussed.