The article suggests the use of the concept of lean governance for formation of lean coal industry in the Kemerovo region, which may be relevant to a large coal region at the present stage of its socioeconomic development. The Kuzbass coal basin is experiencing, like the entire coal industry in the world, not only the crisis but also the problem of overproduction of coal mining, the lack of demand in the market to the extent which is provided by modern technology in its coal production. Lean attitude to the coal resources as a source of economic growth in the coal region should be focused not on its volume and number, not on its removal from the region, but on its lean usage in the region and, above all, should be a matter of the quality of life of residents of the region, which may contribute to the experience of application of lean technologies in China, where the latter is included in the KPI (key performance indicators) to improve the efficiency of the coal industry. An important role in this should belong to the public administrations in the region focused on the application of lean technologies to make the Kemerovo region an economical coal region.