Abstract: Rockburst is an unavoidable dynamic geological disaster in underground mining of metal mines. Its frequency and degree will be more and more serious with the continuous increase of mining depth of metal mines. Rockburst is still a worldwide problem in the field of rock mechanics. Firstly,the current situation of rockburst disasters in metal mines in China was summarized;Then,the research progress on the mechanism and prediction of rockburst was discussed;Finally,a new method for rockburst prediction was proposed based on the energy theory of rock mechanics. The main conclusions are as follows:① The compressive test is one of the most important means to study the mechanism of rockburst. According to the loading conditions of the sample,it can be divided into uniaxial loading,biaxial loading,true triaxial loading and coupled static and dynamic loading. The mechanical mechanism of rockburst can be summarized into three types:compression induced cracking,compression induced shear cracking and bending bulge. ② The index criterion method and mathematical method are two of the most widely used rockburst prediction methods. Index criterion method is empirical summary for a certain project,which is not universal. The internal influencing mechanism of rockburst factors can not be obtained by mathematical methods,and its interpretability is poor. On the basis of the above analysis,the study directions of rockburst mechanism and prediction are prospected,so as to provide reference for the subsequent work.