The number of coal miners killed on the job in the United States has fallen to 21 during the past year, the second lowest annual death count since the federal government began keeping records more than a century ago.

Kentucky led the nation in coal deaths with eight miners killed on the job in 2011, followed by West Virginia with six.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's web site lists three fatalities at mining operations in the Ohio Valley during 2011.

-On Feb. 3,2011, MSHA solicitors determined that a fatality at Consol Energy's McElroy Mine in Cameron was not under the agency's jurisdiction and not chargeable to the mining industry.

-In August of 2011, Keith Baker died after he was fatally wounded by a piece of equipment that struck him in the chest.

-In October of 2011, Charles McIntire died at Consol's Shoemaker Mine in Marshall County when he was run over by a piece of surface equipment.

Records from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration show that an additional eight miners were killed in sand, gravel and rock mines, three in gold mines, two in silver mines, two in phosphate mines and one in a platinum mine.

The 16 fatalities brought the overall death toll in the mining industry to 37 in 2011.