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The paper seeks to evaluate differences in human capital costs associated with deep, as compared to strip, mining, and to indicate how an awareness of these costs may affect the shaping of environmental regulations as applied to the Appalachian coal industry. The differences in terms of safety between the two mining methods is considerable. On a tonnage basis, the fatality rate in deep mining in 1970 was five times greater than the fatality rate in surface mining. In order to fit the data on industrial deaths, injuries and diseases in the coal industry into the benefit/cost framework, the statistics must be given in dollar terms. Four human capital models were utilized: (1) the gross-gross model; (2) net-gross model; (3) gross-differential model; and (4) net-differential model. Tentative results indicated that human capital costs are greater in deep mining than in strip mining. Environmental groups opposed to surface mining have tended to ignore or minimize the human cost differentials associated with alternative forms of mining activity.