🗞️ Miners Safer Than Ever: U.S. Mining Industry Posts Historic Low Injury Rate in 2025

American miners were injured on the job at the lowest rate ever recorded last year, federal safety regulators said Monday, a milestone that comes even as the Trump administration has pressed to accelerate domestic coal and mineral production.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration reported that the industry's total recordable injury rate fell to 1.74 per 200,000 hours worked in 2025, edging below the prior year's figure of 1.82 and besting every previous mark in the agency's history. The measure, which the agency calls the all-injury rate, counts every reportable workplace injury relative to hours worked, encompassing fatalities, incidents resulting in lost work time, cases involving restricted duty and injuries requiring medical attention beyond first aid.

The numbers reflect a long arc of improvement. When MSHA began operating under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, 242 miners died in a single year. By 2011 the all-injury rate had fallen to 2.73, which stood as a record low until the industry kept pushing the figure down over the years that followed. Agency officials credited stricter enforcement, more rigorous training programs and steady advances in safety technology for the continued progress.

Yet the picture is not without complication. Even as the injury rate fell, the total number of miners who died on the job rose sharply. Industry data show that 33 miners were killed in 2025, up from 26 the year before, a roughly 27 percent increase. Twenty-five of those deaths occurred at metal and nonmetal operations; coal mines accounted for the remaining eight. Powered haulage equipment was the single deadliest hazard, responsible for 13 of the fatalities. The divergence between a falling injury rate and a rising death toll reflects a technical reality: the all-injury rate measures non-fatal recordable incidents against total hours worked, and can improve industry-wide even when absolute fatalities climb, particularly if the overall workforce is logging more hours.

Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling tied the safety data to the administration's economic agenda, saying the numbers showed that revitalizing domestic mining and protecting workers were not competing goals. Wayne Palmer, the assistant secretary for mine safety and health, called the decline in injuries cause for celebration while pledging continued work with the mining community.

Key Points

• The 2025 all-injury rate of 1.74 per 200,000 hours worked is the lowest on record for the U.S. mining industry.
• The rate fell from 1.82 in 2024, extending a multi-decade downward trend dating to MSHA's founding in 1978.
• The all-injury rate captures fatalities, lost-time injuries, restricted-duty cases and injuries requiring medical treatment, all measured against hours worked.
• Despite the improved injury rate, total mining fatalities rose to approximately 33 in 2025, up from 26 in 2024, a 27 percent increase.
• Powered haulage was the leading cause of mining fatalities in 2025, accounting for 13 of 33 deaths.
• Metal and nonmetal operations accounted for 25 of the 33 fatalities; coal operations accounted for 8.
• MSHA credited improved training, technology and enforcement for the long-term decline in injury rates.
• The announcement came as the administration pursues an expansion of domestic mineral and coal output.

Sources

Primary Source Author: U.S. Department of Labor / Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)

Primary Source: US Department of Labor announces all-injury rate for mining industry reached historic low in 2025

Primary Source Link: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/msha/msha20260428

Supplemental Links

• MSHA Mine Safety and Health At a Glance (historical injury & fatality data)
• MSHA Data and Reports
• MSHA Statistics Overview
• MSHA Fatality Reports Search
• MSHA Injury Trends in Mining — Historical Fact Sheet
• Pit & Quarry: Industry Finishes 2025 with 33 Miner Fatalities
• Bloomberg Law: Mining Injury Rate Hit Low in 2025 During Coal Production Push