To effectively stimulate miners’ proactive behavior and address the insufficient intrinsic safety motivation resulting from an overemphasis on punishment and control rather than appreciation and communication in mining safety management, this study draws on the Cognitive-Affective System Theory and Self-Determination Theory. It incorporates in-group identification and family-like exchange as mediating variables and face consciousness as a moderating variable, constructing a moderated chain mediation model. A total of 510 valid questionnaires were collected for empirical testing of the proposed hypotheses. The results show that workplace appreciation promotes miners’ proactive behavior, with an effect value of 0.134. Both in-group identification and family-like exchange play independent and sequential mediating roles between workplace appreciation and miners’ proactive behavior. Face consciousness positively moderates the relationship between workplace appreciation and in-group identification (β = 0.293) and enhances the mediating effect of in-group identification; it also positively moderates the relationship between workplace appreciation and family-like exchange (β = 0.267) and strengthens the mediating effect of family-like exchange. The findings provide practical insights for mining enterprises to implement “people-oriented” safety appreciation management.