What records or lists of miners are available?
In a nutshell, not much!
Very few records exist, there are no "lists" of miners or their dependants available.
Records kept during the 19th century and before were not rigorously kept and very few still remain. It's doubtful that the records of mine employees were kept much beyond the need to tally up wages on a fortnightly or monthly basis. The reasons for this are varied, but principally because miners did not get annual leave, sick pay or long service leave. Miners were often on the move from pit to pit as work dictated and they lived a "flit by night" existence. What records did exist were in a lot of cases destroyed when the Coal Industry was nationalised.

How can I find out more about my mining ancestors?
Using birth, death and marriage certificates, or census data, you can usually identify where your ancestors lived. This is important as it can help pinpoint the likely collieries they worked in.
Since most miners' housing was "tied" to the employer, the address can often help identify who owned the houses, often the name of the street will identify the employer.
Search for your ancestors address on an old map such as those found at the Old-maps uk website, having found the address you can then scour around for collieries in the area. The majority of miners did not travel very far to work, most living within a stone's throw of the pit.
Ian Winstanley has lists of collieries active in Scotland throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, they can be viewed at his Coal Mining History Resource Centre website. While at Ian's website you'll also find a wealth of other mining related information including a database of over 90,000 miners who were killed or injured in mining accidents.

Having found where your miners lived and the probable pits they worked in, then what?
Although not specifically limited to miners, a search of the Poor Relief Applications Index can often uncover a wealth of information.
Prior to national social welfare schemes, the poor or workers who found themselves suddenly without income could apply for "poor relief".
Des Garrity will search the index for free, and only charges a small fee if you wish him to copy the records for you. Having used this service I can vouch for the usefulness of the data. From one search Des, found my great grandfather who'd claimed poor relief in Cambuslang after "shattering his leg" in a mining accident. Not only did it give me his current address but also his 5 previous addresses, the dates of births and places of birth (including addresses) of all his children. It also told me how much his weekly earnings were and how much he paid in rent and how much the parish would grant him as relief (10/- for him, his wife and family of 6 young children).
Check out Des Garrity's Pages for more information on both the Poor Relief Applications and Censuses

My ancestor was killed in a mining accident, yet I can't find any record of a disaster for that time, why is this?

Mining was an extremely dangerous occupation, this is evidenced in the huge numbers of those killed (see Ian Winstanley's database above). To classify as a "disaster" some sources suggest that there must be a total of 15 or more deaths, or other sources suggest 30. Accidents resulting from "roof falls" or "fall of roof or stone" etc, were almost an everyday occurence and as such were sometimes not even recorded.
Even accidents of greater magnitude such as the firedamp explosion in Dixon's Pit which happened some weeks before the Disaster of October 1877 (when 216 died). The earlier explosion wasn't recorded by the management of Dixon's yet it resulted in the death of Joseph McAnulty and the serious injury of his brothers Andrew McAnulty and William McAnulty. The details of this earlier accident were only uncovered by the subsequent inquest into the Disaster.

If you think your ancestor was killed in such an accident, do check out Ian's database and even if you're unsuccessful email Ian with your query, as his database is an ongoing project!

Other Sources
There are various other paths you could follow in your search, depending on the date your ancestor worked in the mines, it could be worthwhile looking for union membership details, although I've not had any success in this, but would like to hear from anyone else who has.
I've been quite lucky in that I've found out where my ancestors worked through the resources mentioned above, having done that I've accepted that there may well be no additional information to be had.
This realisation has focused me on the social history of the miners as that gives me an understanding of what life was like for them.
A great source of social history can be found in several books on the subject, check out the Bibliography page on this website on the Mining Links page. However, some particularly good references I've found very useful are A.B. Campbell's "The Lanarkshire Miners"(1979) and J.E. Handley's "The Irish in Scotland" (1943) and "The Navvy in Scotland" (1970)