Huainan with a 100-year coal mining history is an important coal production base of the country in East China, turning out 100 million tons of coal annually.A case study on heavy metals in soil contaminated by mining activity was conducted through the investigation of four soil sampling routes through 3 coal-mining areas different in mining history (about 100, 50 and 25 years, respectively).Soil samples were taken systematically from the lands nearby the gangue dumps.Heavy metals (Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Sn, Cr, Co) in the soils were analyzed by IRIS Intrepid Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP AES) in the Institute of Soil Science, CAS, and certified soil samples (GBW07403) from the China Geological Survey were used for analytical quality control.The results were validated with respect to accuracy and precision.The heavy metals in the soil nearby gangue dumps were mainly attributed to weathering and leaching of the coal-gangues.The results show that coal mining activities contribute greatly to heavy metal pollution of the soil and the metals accumulate.Moreover, the concentration of heavy metals decreases with the history of mining and weathering of the gangue, showing their high mobility, especially with.Co, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Pb.Their contents in some soil were higher above the first-grade criteria for soil pollution established by the SEPA.However, none of them surpass the second-grade criteria, indicating that the translocation of the heavy metals from the gangue damps to their surrounding soils is a slow process.