We studied the colonization patterns of oribatid mites on post-industrial sand and manganese tailing sites, reclaimed areas, natural meadows and forests in the Chiatura region. A total of 89 species were recorded. In forests, the total number of species was high and the oribatid community was made up mainly of forest-specific species. Scheloribates laevigatus (Koch, 1835) predominated in dumps and reclaimed sites, whereas its abundance was lower in meadows and minor in forests. Tectocepheus velatus sarekensis Tragardh, 1910 and Scheloribates latipes (Koch, 1844) were numerous in dumps and meadows, but their abundance was low in forests. Punctoribates punctum (Koch, 1839), however, was found in high densities only at dump sites. Detrended correspondence analyses and hierarchical cluster analyses show that oribatid mites of dump habitats grouped together with those of reclaimed and meadow sites, indicating high faunal similarity and low richness, whereas the forest inhabiting oribatid community was much more diverse. The results of our studies indicate that colonization of dumps is mainly by species of wide ecological preferences.