Abstract: To address the growing imbalance between terrestrial metals supply and market demand, alongside the strategic need for deep-sea mineral resource exploitation, seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) have attracted increasing attention due to their marked enrichment in copper, zinc, gold, and silver. However, the complexity of topography and fragile benthic ecosystems in submarine hydrothermal fields present critical impediments to developing environmentally sustainable and low-disturbance mining technologies. In this paper, the development history and current status of SMS mining technologies are systematically reviewed, the technological evolution path from the early systems such as drag bucket, bucket-chain, and shuttle-based mining to the modern pipe-lift mining systems is systematically analyzed, while the technical characteristics and application prospects of crawler-type and vertical-type mining equipment are well evaluated. Although there have been recent technological advancements commercial-scale mining remains constrained by numerous technical challenges, such as the limited traction stability of seafloor mining vehicles on steep topographies, particle clogging and pipe wall erosion within the ore lifting system and the potential ecological risks driven by sediment plume dispersion during mining operations. Consequently, the future mining technologies would tend to build a new mining system that is intelligent, minimal disruptive and full collaborative. Achieving this requires improving the precision and low-disturbance performance of seabed mining apparatus, enhancing the mechanical reliability of vertical transport systems, strengthening the adaptability of surface multi-functional support platforms and establishing an integrated environmental management framework including monitoring, prediction and regulation. To accelerate this transition, several suggestions are proposed across technological innovation, system optimization and international cooperation, including advancing the engineering validation of key equipment and components, developing a system architecture that integrates mining, hauling and monitoring into a unified framework and data contributions within the International Seabed Authority regulatory framework to support a transparent, predictable regulatory environment. All these initiatives aim to provide a reference basis for promoting green, commercial-ready SMS mining technologies for China.