[Objective] The effects of different soil and water conservation measures on soil nutrients and plant diversity in open-pit coal mine dumps were explored, aiming to provide feasible technical measures for the ecological restoration of mine dumps and other abandoned lands. [Methods] Eight soil and water conservation measures combining soil and water-conservation-engineering and plant measures were deployed on the exposed slopes of the grassland open-pit coal mine discharge site, with no measures (CK) as the control. Sampling was conducted to investigate the characteristics of the plant community, as well as to determine the main physicochemical properties of the soil, compare and analyze the differences in the changes in the characteristics of the plant community, and soil properties of the different soil and water conservation measures. The redundancy method was used to analyze the correlation between plant community characteristics and soil properties. [Results] ① The soil and water conservation measures applied on the slope of the discharge site affected differently the main physicochemical properties of the soil, in which the soil quick-acting nutrient content changed significantly (p<0.05), and the soil quick-acting phosphorus content of the two measures-spreading mixed grass + ecological bag spacing 1m (Ⅱ) and spreading mixed grass + ecological bag spacing 2 m (Ⅲ)-reached 3.38 and 3.13 mg/kg, respectively. These increased by 53.6% and 42.3% compared to that of the control (CK) (2.20 mg/kg), respectively. The soil quick-effect potassium content of the three measures of spreading mixed grass + ecological bag spacing 2 m (Ⅲ), spreading mixed grass + geocell (Ⅶ), and spreading mixed grass + grass curtain (Ⅷ) was 108.25, 126.25, and 124.00 mg/kg, respectively. In contrast, the soil quick-effect potassium content of the control plot was only 53.25 mg/kg. ② The effects of soil and water conservation measures on plant community characteristics manifested mainly in the Simpson’s dominance index, which was significantly higher than that of the control (CK), except for the insignificant differences (p>0.05) between the spreading of sedge + salix psammophila sand barriers (Ⅵ) and the spreading of sedge + geocell (Ⅶ) (p<0.05). ③ The results of redundancy analysis showed that the Margalef richness, Simpson dominance index, and Shannon-Wiener diversity index were all significantly positively correlated with soil quick-acting phosphorus. The Louie evenness index was significantly positively correlated with soil total nitrogen, quick-acting potassium, and slow-acting potassium. [Conclusion] The implementation of soil and water conservation measures in open-pit coal mine dumps can improve the soil nutrient content and plant diversity, which has a positive effect on ecological restoration. The soil and water conservation measures of spreading mixed grass + ecological bag with an interval of 2 m (Ⅲ) and spreading mixed grass + salix psammophila sand barriers (Ⅵ) have a better ecological restoration effect, which can be popularized and applied as the main measures for ecological restoration of dumps in the mining area.