Miners rational about famous statue, endlessly studying figures (13)

I believe the answer is:

numerological

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'endlessly studying figures' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'miners rational about famous statue' is the wordplay.
'miners' becomes 'NUM' (National Union of Mineworkers).
'rational' becomes 'logical' (similar in meaning).
'about' says to put letters next to each other.
'famous statue' becomes 'ero' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'logical' after 'ero' is 'erological'.
'num'+'erological'='NUMEROLOGICAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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