The vegetation in Huayuan County was seriously damaged during the mining process. Using remote sensing data, the vegetation coverage in the Huayuan County lead-zinc mining area was analysed to explore the temporal trends and driving factors of the FVC. As calculated from remote sensing data, the average FVC decreased rapidly from 0.74 to 0.36 from 2000-2008, with no significant change from 2009 to -2018, and gradually recovered from 0.36 to 0.5 from 2019-2024. Two typical mining areas were selected for research. After artificial reclamation, the damaged vegetation can be restored, whereas the vegetation in the naturally restored mining area is difficult to restore. The cluster map of the mining area is obtained via the Moran index, which reveals that artificial reclamation has an obvious effect on vegetation restoration. The destruction of vegetation in mining areas is affected primarily by human activities, while human activities are affected primarily by changes in policy; thus, policy factors are the main factors driving changes in vegetation in mining areas, whereas natural factors have a small influence on changes in the FVC in mining areas. This study provides a theoretical basis for vegetation restoration in other mining areas and promotes sustainable development.

Open-pit coal mining inevitably damages the soil and vegetation in mining areas. Currently, the restoration of cold and arid open-pit mines in Xinjiang, China, is still in the initial exploratory stage, especially the changes in soil nutrients in spoil dumps over time. Dynamic remote sensing monitoring of vegetation in mining areas and their correlation are relatively rare. Using the Heishan Open Pit in Xinjiang, China, as a case, soil samples were collected during different discharge periods to analyze the changes in soil nutrients and uncover the restoration mechanisms. Based on four Landsat images from 2018 to 2023, the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) and fractional vegetation cover (FVC) were obtained to evaluate the effect of mine restoration. Additionally, the correlation between vegetation changes and soil nutrients was analyzed. The results indicated that (i) the contents of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and organic matter (OM) in the soil increased with the duration of the restoration period. (ii) When the restoration time of the dump exceeds 5 years, N, P, K, and OM content is higher than that of the original surface-covered vegetation area. (iii) Notably, under the same restoration aging, the soil in the artificial mine restoration demonstration base had significantly higher contents of these nutrients compared to the soil naturally restored in the dump. (iv) Over the past five years, the RSEI and FVC in the Heishan Open Pit showed an overall upward trend. The slope remediation and mine restoration project significantly increased the RSEI and FVC values in the mining area. (v) Air humidity and surface temperature were identified as key natural factors affecting the RSEI and FVC in cold and arid open pit. The correlation coefficients between soil nutrient content and vegetation coverage were higher than 0.78, indicating a close and complementary relationship between the two. The above results can clarify the time-effect relationship between natural recovery and artificial restoration of spoil dumps in cold and arid mining areas in Xinjiang, further promoting the research and practice of mine restoration technology in cold and arid open pits.