West Virginia was the state with the most coal-mining jobs in the United States, with some 14,014 employees in 2023. The state's coal mining employment has been in decline since 2010, when just over 21,000 people were working in the sector. By comparison, there were 5,029 jobs in this industry in Kentucky in 2023, which was the second-largest coal mining employer state. Coal-mining employment in the U.S. Of all U.S. coal-producing regions, the Appalachian region held the most significant portion of available coal-mining jobs, amounting to over 26,000 employees in total in 2023. The total coal-mining employment in the United States reached 45,443 jobs in that same year. More than half of those jobs were in underground mines. Similarly, in West Virginia, there were 10,219 underground mining jobs and 2,778 surface mining jobs as of 2022. U.S. mining industry employment breakdown The entire U.S. mining industry employed some 182,000 people (with the exclusion of the oil and gas sector, which is also considered mining) in 2022. U.S. coal mining employment increased in the early 2010s due to increases in exports and decreases within local coal mines. Decreases in productivity within the mines require more workers per unit of production. Although energy derived from coal still accounts for a large part of the United States' electricity production, the U.S. solar power industry is currently providing many more jobs than the coal mining industry.

In a survey conducted in 2024 regarding Australian attitudes towards mining, 55 percent of participants agreed that mining negatively impacts the health of mine employees, with nine percent strongly agreeing. Additionally, 45 percent of participants stated that mining has negative effects on the health of local communities.

Diamond mining employed over 15,000 people in South Africa in 2023. This was an increase compared to the previous year when nearly 14,600 people were employed by South Africa's diamond mining industry. The mining industry is an important part of the South African economy, contributing over 202 billion rand to the country's GDP in 2023. In the same year, South Africa's mining industry employed a total of 477,000 people.

At over four kilometers above sea level, Potosí, Bolivia is one of the highest cities in the world. According to census data from 2012, the population of Potosí was almost 176,000 people; a figure that is barely 16 thousand more than its estimated population four centuries before. It is estimated that the population of Potosí grew from 14 thousand in 1547, to 150 thousand by the turn of the 17th century (and some estimates suggest that it exceeded 200,000 in subsequent decades). With this explosion in population growth, Potosí quickly became the most populous city in the Americas, and was even larger than most European cities in the 17th century. This growth came following the discovery of silver deposits in 1545 in a nearby mountain, later named Cerro Rico ("Rich Hill"); this silver would provide a significant share of the Spanish crown's wealth during the 16th century, helping Spain grow to become the most powerful nation on earth at this time. Forced labor Following the defeat of the Incas in 1536, Spanish colonizers then subjugated the native populations of the Andes and put them to work. As it was impractical and expensive to transport African slaves to this region of the Andes, and the New Laws of 1542 prohibited the enslavement of indigenous Americans, the Spanish simply used violence and intimidation to force local populations to mine the silver at Potosí. The Incan tradition of Mit'a; where adult males were drafted to provide mandatory labor for the betterment of local infrastructure and facilities; was eventually appropriated by Spanish authorities as the legal basis of their demand for labor from local areas. It is estimated that one in every seven indigenous adult males was drafted from nearby communities to work in the mines of Potosí. Some reports suggest that the locals viewed this work as a death sentence, as the survival rate among drafted workers was fewer than 15 percent in some periods. There are further reports that forced laborers were expected to do the most strenuous tasks, which included carrying 25 or 45 kilogram sacks of silver along 300 meter shafts, as often as 25 times per day. The high death rate was not only due to over-intensive labor, accidents and injuries (cave-ins were common), but also malnutrition, disease and extreme temperatures and altitudes, as well as respiratory illnesses caused by the inhalation of dust, mercury and arsenic, among others.

"Valer un Potosí" Around the turn of the 17th century, the Spanish Americas produced almost all of the silver mined in the world. The Spanish crown claimed a significant share of this silver, and in some years, Potosí silver was responsible for a quarter of all Spanish revenues. This silver also played a significant part in the emergence of inter-continental trade, as a large portion of it was eventually used as currency for trade with China; some historians define this as the birth of the global economy. Eventually, the legend of Potosí grew, attracting thousands of voluntary workers from all over the Americas, as well as large numbers of Europeans in search of fortune. The silver deposits began to dry up in the mid-1600s, and the population dropped to just 60,000 by the end of the century, when silver output was just one third of its peak level. As time passed, the silver all but disappeared, and miners turned to other materials such as tin, zinc and copper (which continue to be procured today); however the legacy of Potosí's wealth continues and is used in the Spanish language when describing something of considerable value as being; "valer un Potosí" (worth a Potosí).