A crowd of hundreds has gathered in hot and windy conditions to attend a memorial service for generations of fallen miners.

The far west NSW city of Broken Hill holds the annual service at the Miners Memorial, which lists the names of over 800 miners who have died on the job since 1883.

In fact, the mines at Broken Hill have claimed more Australian lives than the Vietnam War.

Memorial organiser, CFMEU regional vice president Greg Braes, knows their experience firsthand.

“I can remember working on the mine when there was the last fatality down the North Mine — hardly knew the bloke, but it still knocked you around,” Mr Braes said.

“Even today, when you hear of a fatality in the coal mines or somewhere else, it still hits a miner deep down.”

The timing of the service was picked to coincide with the anniversary of the deaths of Leopold Campbell and Thomas Jordan, who died on the Central Mine in 1902.

Their bodies were not recovered, and are likely to be located under the mullock heap and Miners Memorial.

Mr Braes said mining was still a dangerous industry, but that companies, workers, unions and government authorities now treat safety with equal importance.

“That's mining, and there's fatalities, and we've got to work towards the best we can, which I believe we all are,” he said.