I agree with Kunlock idea and here\'s an easy solution about how it could be done:

I think mining should be something similar to crystal hunting. So many people were enjoying it... So why did devs remove it?

People that want to dig would have to run around the dungeons or other areas where there are ores to dig and sometime find little pieces of ore getting out of walls and floors. That would mean there is one or more ore HERE. Then you click on it and try to dig it with your pike.

That way, bots would be much harder to build and could only help to dig everything on one spot. I currently get something every digging, even the most valuable ores and I only have 1 in the mining skill...  So it should also be harder to mine something.

As mining would take much more time, of course the value of ores should be increased.

As the crystals spawn functions are already built and they work well, it would probably be a not-2-hard task to use it for ores and it would add some fun to dig. I also agree to the idea of monsters protecting ores, so the most precious ores would only be availlables to stronger players or, of course, miners that run the dungeons with some guards hired.