[Objective] Survey of cultivable bacterial diversity in the oil shale deposits is important to use untapped bacterial resources in the oil shale mines. [Methods] We isolated and purified bacteria in the three major oil shale mines (Fushun mine in Liaoning, Huadian mine in Jilin, and Maoning mine in Guangdong) in China on the nutrient agar medium by the dilution plate culture method. Then we determined 16S rRNA gene sequence and did phylogenetic analysis of the isolated bacteria. [Results] Ten genus were identified in the three mines, including nine OTUs (belonging to Pantoea, Brevibacillus, Paenibacillus, Microbacterium, Arthrobacter, Pseudomonas and Bacillus) in Fushun mine, five OTUs (belonging to Bacillus and Sinomona) in Maoming mine, and five OTUs (belonging to Staphylococcus, Acinetobacter, Bacillus and Arthrobacter) in Huadian mine. [Conclusion] The compositions of cultivable bacterial communities in the three mines were simple and similar at the phylum level, mainly including Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Some Proteobacteria existed in Fushun mine and Huadian mine. However, their compositions in the three mines had quite differences at the genera level.