This paper makes an investigation on the relative contributions of five economic variables to the economic growth of mining cities in China, which includes the investment in fixed assets, employees within city proper, human capital accumulation, industrial structure and institutionary evolution. The sampled city covers most types of mining cities: coal city, oil-gas city, metal industry city, chemical industry city. It is be found out that the investment in fixed assets is the decisive factor in the economic growth of the mining cities during the 1990's, while human capital accumulation, industrial structure and institution change also play a positive role. Finally, from the point of sustainable development some corresponding countermeasures are proposed such as increasing the investment in fixed assets, optimizing industrial structure, developing none-state economy .