Terrorist attacks targeting the mining sector represent an under-explored threat. This study aims to characterize the epidemiology, distribution, and features of mining-related terrorism events.

A retrospective search of the Global Terrorism Database was performed, querying attacks between 1970 and 2020 with “business” as primary target type and “mining” as subtype. Attacks were analyzed by region, perpetrating group, modality, and weapon type.

There were 541 mining-related attacks from 1970 to 2020, leading to 617 deaths and 574 injuries. Frequency of mining-related attacks has increased in recent years, particularly after 2010. Geographically, South Asia (23.7%), South America (22.9%), and Southeast Asia (22.7%) had the most attacks. Attacks in sub-Saharan Africa comprised a smaller percentage of attacks (16.6%), but the largest fraction of deaths (60.0%) and injuries (61.5%). Anarchist/revolutionary groups were the most common perpetrators (46.0%). Religious extremist groups were responsible for fewer attacks (6.1%) but had outsized impact in terms of deaths (16.4%) and injuries (17.6%). Armed assault was the most common modality (28.1%) and comprised most deaths (56.9%) and injuries (51.0%). Hostage-taking comprised 19.0% of incidents, with 775 hostages taken. Coal (20.0%) and gold (10.4%) were the most targeted minerals.

Mining-related terrorist attacks have increased in recent years and are characterized by high operational success, politically motivated perpetrating groups, disproportionate lethality in sub-Saharan Africa, and frequent hostage-taking.