Abstract: As an important link in digital transition of the coal industry, the development of intelligent coal preparation plant in China has evolved from the process of realizing automation of single equipment to the stage of turning the plants into intelligent, digital and networked ones, pushing the coal industry to become a new quality productive force from one with traditionally labor intensive operations. Currently, the technologies for the development of an intelligent plant are mainly centered on three aspect: i.e. automation, informationization and intelligentization. Thanks to the use of advanced technologies and equipment, such as automatic control, Internet of Things, smart equipment, big data and AI, intelligent plant operation management platform, etc., part of the coal cleaning processes has been made possible to operate with a high efficiency under accurate control, leading to improvement of both operating efficiency and quality of products. Through the development over the past years, the efforts made by the coal industry in this respect all the way have yielded notable results. Nevertheless, some problems as follows have been revealed in the meantime: some infrastructures cannot meet the requirements for management of a smart plant; some technologies lack practical applicability; no great importance is accorded to the management of some of the process technologies; low rendition and lack of intensive application of intelligent technologies; lack of talents and the challenge posed by the need to raise technical skills. The technological research and development work in the future will be directed to turning coal preparation plants to a transparent, unattended and highly efficient plants so as to provide a reliable guarantee for plants to make technical upgrading. To achieve these objectives, the use of intelligent technology in electrical and mechanical equipment operation and maintenance management, coal cleaning process management and safety management should be taken as the entry point, and technical breakthroughs are required to be made in the following areas: collection and analysis of global parameters of coal cleaning systems by means of intelligent sensing techniques; development of equipment full life cycle management technology for use in coal sector, including, among others, equipment failure diagnosis model, intelligent patrol inspection system, AI-based image recognition technology and detection device, intelligent power supply and distribution system and management platform; strengthening the efforts in research on sensing and intelligent control technologies and development of highly reliable intelligent process control system; and development of coal preparation expert system for realizing intelligent monitoring and control and optimization of coal cleaning operations based on computer technology and big data analysis. The development of intelligent coal preparation plant has undergone the transition from expansion in disorder to the level rated by scores, and is currently in a new development stage. Provided that the opportunity is seized, the various challenging problems are properly tackled, technical innovations are incessantly made and the technologies are applied in an elaborate manner, the development of intelligent coal preparation plant can surely make remarkable contributions to the growth of China′s coal sector.