With the over-exploitation of mineral resources leading to major conflicts such as water shortage, water quality deterioration, and water ecology deterioration, the risks arising from water ecology in mining areas have received extensive attention from scholars at home and abroad. Using the Web of Science core collection as the data source, 1939 papers from 2007-2021 were used as research objects. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to draw a knowledge map for literature visualization and analysis, with the aim of exploring the inner rules, research hotspots and evolutionary trends in the field of water ecology risks in mining areas. The study shows that: (1) The number of publications has been steadily increasing, with China being the country with the highest number of publications. (2) Many studies are conducted within research teams, but cooperation between teams is not strong enough. (3) The current research area has shifted from single substances to coupled research on multiple substances generated by mining. (4) Pollutants from mining areas have a direct impact on the ecological and health safety of humans.