Classification is one of the foundation in studying mining soils, which is particularly important for the improvement and vegetation reconstruction of mining soils. This paper described the changes of mining soil characteristics and their influences on the classification of mining soils from four aspects of physics, chemistry, biology and pollution, summarized the research advances in the name, basis, index system and method of the classification in mining soils. At present, mining soils were classified by using spectral technology, fuzzy c-mean method and neural network model on the bases of their unique attributes, but these methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, thus, it was recommended for future study to select quantitative classification index according to the local conditions to combine principal component analysis and other mathematical models with spectral techniques for mining soil classificationin order to provide further scientific basis for land reclamation and utilization.