Spontaneous combustion of coal gangue hill is one of the main environmental pollution sources in mining area. To seal and afforest the coal gangue, a covering layer with a certain air barrier property is needed. The covering layer is made of soil materials by rolling compaction and thus the performance of air barrier depends on rolling quality. The compaction effect in relation to rolling tool and the rolling conditions of field coal gangue was studied by combining on-site compaction test for coal gangue dump governance in the Yangquan 3rd coal mine. Based on the rolling compaction experiment on the loess of various thicknesses, soil rigidity and dry density were measured to illustrate the rolling effect and the reasonable rolling parameters were analyzed under the condition that the degree of compaction(85%) was used as the compacted quality control standard. By utilizing the self-made grinding roller(4 t) for flat rolling, results show that shallow soil was more sensitive to rolling frequency in comparison with deep soil, and its corresponding depth was about 15-25 cm. The suggested construction proposal and rolling parameters are that moisture content is close to the optimum rate of water content (between±2%), loose paving thickness is 20-40 cm, and the material is compacted by 3~5 times rolling.