Abstract:According to the mining of shallow seam in Guojiawan Mine in northern Shannxi,China,the different schemes for remaining partition of coal pillars and regional coal pillars in practice are studied by using FEM numerical simulation. The stability of pillars in the stope and overlying strata is studied. The mechanism of the large area caving is explored. The important aspects of reasonable,safe and economic exploitation are provided for shallow seams in northern Shannxi and for similar medium-sized and small-sized mines in the west China as well.