Abstract: The scarce coking coal is the fundamental guarantee energy of steel and chemical industry, and is considered as a strategic mineral resource because of its scarcity, irreplaceability and non-renewability. The Huaibei Coalfield in Anhui Province, as one of the first key mining areas of scarce coking coal set up by the state, has rich resources and excellent coal quality, and is the most promising coking coal resource source in East China.In order to systematically understand the occurrence characteristics and exploitation and utilization potential of scarce coking coal in the study area, this paper reveals the spatio-temporal difference characteristics, formation control factors and resource potential of scarce coking coal in the study area through coal rock analysis, industrial coal quality index test, comprehensive mapping and resource evaluation, using previous drilling data and underground supplementary sampling tests.The results show that the scarce coking coal in Huaibei coalfield is well developed, and the floating coal after washing shows the characteristics of ultra−low water, ultra−low ash, ultra−low sulfur, ultra−low fixed carbon, medium and high volatile, and has the process properties of medium−strong bonding and coking, low potassium and sodium content, and good mechanical strength and thermal strength.The scarce coking coal is controlled by the regional structure and the sedimentary distribution of coal seams, and the coal seams of Xiashihezi Formation 7 and 8 are the most developed. The scarce coking coal is distributed sporadically in the northern part of the coalfield, and continuously distributed in the southern part of the coalfield, and the metamorphism degree of coal is increasing from southwest to northeast in the area.The formation and spatiotemporal distribution of scarce coking coal were controlled by the fault activity in different directions and magmatic coupling in the post−Yanshanian period. The scarce coking coal is divided into three grades: Low−ash−ultra−low−sulfur coal, ultra−low−ash−low−sulfur coal, low−ash−low−sulfur coal, and low−ash−low−sulfur coal from the perspective of clean and green development.It is estimated by classification, classification and zoning that the reserved resources of shallow scarce coking coal at −1500 m are about 10.165 million tons, accounting for 78.13% of the total reserved resources in the coal field, and the resource potential is huge.By establishing an evaluation index system for the development and utilization of scarce coking coal resources, and using the hierarchical fuzzy evaluation method, each mine and exploration area are divided into four types of development zones: favorable, relatively favorable, general, and unfavorable. Suggestions for protective and restrictive development, total quantity control development, and prohibitive development are proposed for different types of development zones.