Top coal caving mining method has a long history. France, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and other countries began to apply the top coal caving mining method in the late 1940s and early 1950s. 1957, the Soviet Union developed KTY-type caving support, which was used in Tomusins mine in Kuzbas coalfield. 1963 France developed the "banana" type coal discharging support, which was used in Dalcy mine in Blanzy mining area of France in 1964, and the test was successful. Later, Britain, France, Yugoslavia, Hungary and other countries introduced this technology. Fully mechanized top-coal caving mining once became the main method of mining thick coal seams in eastern Europe, but due to various reasons, European fully mechanized top-coal caving mining technology did not achieve good technical and economic indicators. After the mid-1980s, foreign top-coal caving mining shrank, and only a few mines were still in use after the 1990s.

Top coal caving was adopted in Kailuan, Datong, Fengfeng and Hebi mining areas in China in the early 1950s. 1982 introduced fully mechanized top coal caving technology, 1984 started industrial test in Puhe Mine, Shenyang. This coal mining method has developed rapidly in China for more than 20 years because of its obvious advantages such as low tunneling rate, high efficiency, strong adaptability and easy realization of high yield. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, China's fully mechanized top-coal caving technology has been in the forefront of the world, and a whole set of fully mechanized top-coal caving technology has been exported to foreign countries.