Abstract: Nowthwest China has rich coal resources,which are accounted for 76.46 percent of the total forecast coal reserves in the nation. The major coal basins are the Ordos,the Junggar,the Tyrpan-Hami and the northern Tarim basins. Of the basins,the Ordos basin has a stable cratonic basement on which the Carboniferous-Permian north China type marine-continental facies and also Triassic-Jurassic intracontinent-lacustrine caol-bearing strata were deposited. The Junggar,Tyrpan-Hami and Northern Tarim basins belong to the Jurassic intracontinental lacustrine coal basins with the stable continental basement. The Ili,Youledusi,Yanqi and Kumishi basins are intermountane fault basins on the basement of the Hercynian fold zone. The basement of the Hexizoulang basin groups is the Caledonian fold zone. Alsly and Qaidam massifs covered by desert have palaeogeographic conditions for coal accumulation during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. In fact,some small coal basin groups have been found on the southern margin of the two massifs.