Learning from past for future success

As we get ready for MINEXCHANGE 2026, we have opportunities to collaborate, innovate and execute ideas and technology that will continue to drive the mining industry forward. Mine safety and health is an essential part of journey. We must be willing to acknowledge and learn from the past in order to be successful in the future. I would like to look at how we did last year and challenge us to look at our operations and what we can do to make 2026 the safest year in the mining industry. Every mining fatality is a tragedy. In 2025, the U.S. mining industry experienced 33 miner fatalities, an increase from 2024 and a reminder that serious risks still exist in our industry despite advances in technology and regulation. These deaths involved both miners and contractors, across coal and metal/nonmetal operations, and many occurred during routine tasks. There appears to be a consistent pattern and clear opportunities to prevent similar losses in the future. Powered haulage was the leading cause of mining fatalities in 2025, accounting for 13 deaths, nearly 40 percent of the total. Machinery-related accidents followed with six fatalities, while other causes included electrical incidents, falls of ground or highwall failures, inundations, explosions involving pressurized systems, handling materials, hoisting incidents, and slips or falls of a person. Most of the fatalities, 25 of the 33, occurred at metal and nonmetal operations, particularly at crushed stone, limestone and cement facilities. Coal operations accounted for the remaining eight fatalities. This brief analysis of the data available from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show us that the fatal risks involved with mining and mineral processing are industry-wide and no operation is immune from these risks. Many of these fatal accidents involved common, well-known hazards, often during maintenance, equipment movement, or work performed near mobile equipment. How we manage these risks is key to making improvements. MSHA fatality alerts and safety bulletins from 2025 identify several recurring contributing factors, including miners working too close to moving or energized equipment, failure to block, secure or lock out equipment during maintenance, inadequate workplace examinations before starting tasks, poor visibility or communication between equipment operators and ground personnel, and working beneath unsupported ground, ribs or highwalls. Between January 2025 and March 2025 alone, MSHA reported 10 fatalities, more than triple the same period in 2024, leading to a safety alert emphasizing hazard recognition and safe equipment operation.I would like to share some basic principles and discussion topics that we can take to MINEXCHANGE so that we have something to talk about with our colleagues and classmates we have not seen in decades.While the causes of fatal accidents vary, investigations show that strong fundamentals, applied consistently, can prevent most serious incidents. To talk about how we work safely every day, we need to look at the start of the day first. Every leader in the mining industry needs to make sure that miners are properly trained to safely perform the work that they are asked to perform. Additionally, leaders need to assess each miner’s fitness for duty in every shift. Miners need to assess other miners’ fitness for duty as well. Miners are human beings, not machines, who have good days and not-so-good days. Therefore, step one is to ensure miners are ready to be successful. When miners are fit for duty, they are in the right space to assess the risks they will face throughout the day. Identifying hazards and assessing risks is both an individual and shared responsibility across every operation. There are regulations that assign responsibility for workplace exams and pre-operational inspections to identify hazards or defects and to make the necessary corrections to ensure that miners can operate safely in the environment and with the equipment that will be used. The value of quality inspections and the resulting corrections cannot be understated. When the workplace and the equipment that will be used are in safe working conditions, another important practice is to ensure that the miners doing the work will not contact the high energies involved with the equipment. When considering mobile equipment, every operation should have a mobile equipment safety plan that addresses separating personnel from mobile equipment. These plans should ensure a clear separation through physical barriers, procedures and specific training to ensure miners stay clear of the line of fire or motion of mobile equipment. To ensure that miners do not contact these high energies, we need to ensure that proper energy control procedures are in place that address all potential energies that could be involved. When mining leaders know that the miners are properly trained, have identified the risks and have implemented the proper controls, it is time for the leaders to go to work and verify that the controls are in place and are sustainable through the work. How leaders approach this work sets the safety culture at the site. Leaders’ actions should support “stop work” authority for all miners, reinforce that production never outweighs safety, and value questions to current practices and new ideas to approach the work.There are many approaches, technologies and philosophies on what makes operations successful when it comes to safety. MINEXCHANGE is an excellent opportunity to engage with other mining professionals to make 2026 the safest year possible.

Learning from past for future success

Authored by: Matthew Main

To view the past issues of the UCA magazine you must be a member of SME/UCA.

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