Since I've been put off my usual job of trucking cargo by the sheer instability of 3.8, I've been trying my hand back as a miner..and quite enjoying it too. I've been dragging in around 10-30k per run in a Prospector...which is pretty lightweight earnings compared to my usual hauling in a Caterpillar... but it's certainly engaging.
Ci¬G seems to have the balance of challenge and reward about right, you have to cherry pick which materials you mine, which rocks to look for and which fragments of the cracked rock to extract for a higher yield. The main thing is you don't feel like it's a grind when you're doing it, it takes a bit of time and patience, a bit of skill but it's rarely boring. The variety and capabilities of the new mining heads also add a bit of complexity to the mining and temper your choices on what you can mine and what you can't. Like most things, it's a learning curve and gets easier and better with experience (See SaltEMike's vid below)
They've adjusted the RNG spawn rate and yield of the rocks...made some larger and more lucrative deposits that are difficult if not impossible to crack open with standard size 1 mining heads or a single prospector...adding a higher power head makes a bit of difference but some of the bigger rocks with larger mass and/or higher resistance need a multicrewed Mole to crack, or a pair of Prospectors working in tandem. I also noticed that they've massively reduced the amount of inert material with higher % of raw ore per chunk...the inert material sometimes breaks off in separate large pieces too which is nice, leaving the raw extractable ore all packed into one or more smaller pieces.
It's been a refreshing change from the hauling as much as it's not as financially rewarding (as yet), I still feel like it's a good time versus effort mechanic compared to even how it used to be. A definite improvement all round and with the Prospectors now being rentable and buyable in game removing the old hard cash pay wall aspect of mining in SC...it's worth a bash.
Mining techniques and locations...