MSHA fatalities in 2026: why are 22 of the 30 deaths outside coal?
Coal mines lost 8 miners by November 6. Sand, gravel and stone pits lost 13. Per hour worked, the rest of mining has turned deadlier since 2020; coal has not.
Thirty, as of November 6. That is three more than by the same date in 2025, and the most since 2023. The number people tend to expect is coal. Coal accounts for 8 of the 30. The other 22 died at sand pits, stone quarries, gravel plants, cement plants and metal mines.
That split is the story of US mine safety over the last fifteen years. In 2010, coal mines lost 46 miners by early November, the year of Upper Big Branch. Every other kind of mine combined lost 18. Since 2015, coal has not passed 14 in that window, and other mining has passed coal in every year but 2017.
Is it only that more people work outside coal?
Partly. Non-coal mines and plants logged about 395 million hours of work in 2025. Coal logged about 114 million, down from 176 million in 2015. More hours means more deaths at the same risk.
But the risk did not stay the same. Per hour worked, coal is where it was: 0.79 deaths per 10 million hours from 2015 to 2019, and 0.78 from 2020 to 2025. Everything else went from 0.44 to 0.64. That is about 45% more deaths for the same work. Coal is still the more dangerous job per hour. The gap has closed by more than half.
Where the 2026 deaths happened
Thirteen of the 30 were at mines that dig sand, gravel or stone, mostly the material that goes into concrete and roads. That is more than coal on its own. Eighteen of the 22 non-coal deaths were on the surface or in a plant, not underground.
MSHA puts each death in a class. In 2026 the largest is powered haulage, with 9: trucks, loaders and conveyors. Next is slip or fall of person, with 6. In the same window of 2025 there was 1 such death. Six ties the most since 2010. Most of the six were falls from a height: a contractor through a roof panel 37 feet up, a manager through an opening in a hoist house, a miner from a hopper onto a belt, another from a feeder.
Our best guess
The deaths have moved to where the work is: surface pits, quarries and plants, two of this year's deaths at portable crushers. The hazards there are trucks, belts and high platforms, not roof falls or methane. The rules and habits that cut coal deaths were built for coal's hazards, and the per-hour numbers say the rest of the industry has not had the same gains. A falling-from-height spike this size in one year is probably partly chance. The rise in the non-coal rate since 2020 is not one year.
We track every MSHA fatality notice as it posts at Mining Incidents.
How we counted
Deaths come from MSHA's Part 50 accident records, as loaded by our Mining Incidents site on November 2, 2026, counting rows where the injury was fatal. One 2026 death was filed twice, by the mine operator and by the contractor; we count it once. Part 50 runs to October 17, 2026, so the 2026 total adds three later deaths from MSHA's preliminary fatality notices (September 2 in Idaho, October 22 in Wyoming, October 23 in Illinois). Earlier years use January 1 to November 6. "Other mining" is every mine MSHA does not class as coal. Hours come from MSHA's quarterly operator and contractor employment reports, with office-worker hours left out. What a 2026 mine produces is the "material" line on MSHA's preliminary notice.