Miners perhaps love hot pepper (7)
I believe the answer is:
pimento
'pepper' is the definition.
(pimiento is a type of pepper)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pimento that I've seen before include "Vegetable" , "Type of pepper" , "Jamaica pepper" , "Plant" , "Sweet red pepper" .)