The environment in mining cities is frail, whose sustainable development catches much attention from public. This paper, based on an evaluation of ecological footprint models, analyzes the ecological footprint structure and loading structure in mining city Wu’an in 2005, compares among five other mining cities in regional resources utilization and sustainable development. The results indicate that the per capital ecological footprint is much bigger than per capital loading in mining cities, implying a deteriorating development. The ecological deficit is derived from big energy consumption in mining cities. This paper presents some suggestions for the sustainable development in mining cities.