IMO, I see mining adjustments in 2 steps.



Step 1

Increase the yields of each asteroid substantially. You have this massive rock that should be mineral/metal rich at its core, and yet you scrape off anywhere between 0 to 3 tonnes of goods before moving on to the next rock. Most of my time mining is spent moving from one rock to the next, which gets annoying after awhile. I'd rather spend my time to find the right rock, then be able to strip mine it for its actual yield. In this way, a miner will make frequent trips back to the station and be rewarded per time invested to that of other occupations.



Example:

Minerals like Galite and Indite are common with yields to fill between 50 - 100T from a single rock. They don't pay as much as rarer minerals/metals, but bulk selling them puts them on-par with rares and other occupation payouts. If you do happen to come across a rare rock of, let's say palladium, then you'll be able to extract between 5 - 20T worth for your lucky find. Right, it's a bonus! Now miners no longer have to feel like they spend their time gold digging. You still can and the payout will be there, but if you're just interested in mining then bulk selling the common minerals/metals is still worthwhile and on-par with other occupational payouts. A python that fills up his cargo with 250T of Galite from mining 2 to 3 rocks (approx 5 - 10 minutes) will earn a payout of about 500K, which isn't bad.



Step 2

FDev really needs to upgrade the BGS. The universe is so static and uninteresting. If miners could actually see their hard work helping to advance the economy of a sector in real-time, then that would be a secondary reward for your time investment. As it stands now, the whole turn-based BGS is just silly and off-putting. If I dump 200T of raw metals into an industry, I want to see those number take effect immediately. I want to see that industry starting to make new machinery and visibly see numbers starting to change on the commodities board. I'd like to get an end of day report that shows just how much of a difference I helped to make in that sector. We all play ED to feel connected and immersed in its universe, but it's nigh impossible to do that when everything is stagnant for several days.