By Shelly Baskin
Frankfort, KY – Kentucky led the nation in coal deaths with eight miners killed on the job in 2011. West Virginia mines had the second highest count with six. But overall the United States saw the second lowest death count in over a century, with 21 coal mine deaths last year. Records from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration show that an additional 16 miners were killed in other types of mining operations around the state. Those fatalities brought the overall death toll in the mining industry to 37 in 2011.