The arid ecosystem is inherently fragile, and ecological restoration after coal mining has long been a core research topic in the field of restoration ecology. However, key scientific questions remain elusive, such as how open-pit coal mining in arid regions affects soil enzyme activities and microbial metabolic limitations in the vicinity of mining pits, and whether such impacts vary with the distance from the pits and sampling directions. Therefore, the study focused on the Zhundong coal mining area in Xinjiang as a typical research area.Soil samples(0–10 cm) were systematically collected from 11 distance gradients across 8 directions around the mining pit, as well as from the control area. We systematically determined soil physicochemical properties and the activities of key enzymes involved in microbial metabolism, including carbon (C)-acquiring enzyme: β-1,4-glucosidase (BG); nitrogen (N)-acquiring enzymes: β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG) and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP); and phosphorus (P)-acquiring enzyme: alkaline phosphatase (AKP). In addition, in-depth analysis was carried out by combining multiple analytical methods. Results showed that open-pit coal mining significantly altered the spatial distribution pattern of soil enzyme activities, which exhibited obvious heterogeneity characteristics: the activities of BG, NAG, and LAP formed high-value aggregation areas in the immediate vicinity of the mining pit, while AKP activity increased gradually with the increasing distance from it; moreover, there were significant wind direction differences in the response of enzyme activities to mining disturbance, with differential patterns observed between the downwind (DW) and upwind (UW) directions. More specifically, the activity of C-acquiring enzymes in the downwind (DW) direction was significantly higher than that in the upwind (UW) direction, while the activity of P-acquiring enzymes in the DW direction was significantly lower than that in both the UW direction and the control area (CK). Additionally, the activities of C- and P-acquiring enzymes in all wind directions were lower than those in the CK area. In contrast, there were no significant differences in N-acquiring enzyme activity across different wind directions or compared with the CK area. Analysis using the ecoenzymatic stoichiometry model showed that soil microbial metabolism in the mining area was generally co-limited by N and P: microbial metabolism in the DW direction was dominated by P limitation, while that in the UW direction exhibited dual characteristics of both N limitation and P limitation. Meanwhile, it was found that open-pit coal mining significantly reduced the degree of C limitation on microorganisms. Redundancy analysis and random forest model further revealed that total nitrogen (TN) was the core driving factor regulating the overall microbial metabolic limitations in the study area and those in the upwind (UW) direction. In contrast, the microbial metabolic limitations in the downwind (DW) direction were primarily regulated by available phosphorus (AP).