Abstract: The development of coalbed methane(CBM) in mining area is conductive to the efficient mining of pressure relief CBM in mining panels, and it reduces the risk level of underground gas. However, the difference in geological and coal mining conditions makes the development effect of surface wells quite different. Therefore, it is of guiding significance to evaluate the pre-mining panel selection. In order to explore an efficient selection method of CBM in mining areas, a complete evaluation system of CBM development potential in mining area is established by building one vote veto system and evaluation index system, combining analytic hierarchy process(AHP) and entropy method, finally quantifying the comprehensive score, and the method was applied to the Xiaonan Mine in Tiefa Mining Area. The results show that 4 of the 16 planned mining panels scored greater than 0.6, then it is recommended to develop CBM from them. At the same time, the units with higher ranking of evaluation results has higher income, and they are located in the favorable tectonic area for CBM in Xiaonan Mine, which is consistent with the evaluation results and verifies the rationality of the evaluation results. In conclusion, the evaluation results of AHP-entropy method are more reasonable, effectively avoid the blindness of CBM development in mining area, and have certain practical reference value for engineering development arrangement and economic benifits.