This article focuses on the mining activities of Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKI) the major lignite supplier in Turkey. First we analyzed the lignite production and overburden removal activities of TKI from a historical perspective and then employed the Principle Component Analysis to build a mining efficiency index of TKI and investigated its historical development since the establishment of the company. We found that labor productivity and operational structure have been the most important factors positively affecting the index. The current article makes two important contributions: (1) by using the most comprehensive data set available on TKI for the first time and (2) by developing a Mining Efficiency Index (MEI) which can be used to analyze productivity in lignite mining activities in different countries. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.