The respiratory quinone profile was used as a tool for the study on microbial community structure in the mine tailings of abandoned mines over the depth. For the study, the area of Jingok mine located in Bongwha, Korea has been selected. The distributions of Cd, Cu, Pb, Al, Fe and Mn showed the following common patterns; the highest values in the upper part of mine failings (0-20 cm), rapid decrease with increasing depth. The dominant quinone species of the mine tailings were UQ-9 followed by UQ-10, suggesting that microbes had contributed to heavy metal degradation. The quinone contents in mine tailings ranged from 5.0 to 24.9 nmol/kg. The microbial diversity in the upper part of mine tailings (0-40 cm) was higher than that of lower part of mine tailings (100-120 cm).