Mining in Explorer is a bit more convoluted than in other such games. Firstly, unless you want to run the risk of having your claim stolen you must get a permit to mine and/ or explore a system. Once you have one of these (which don't come cheap) you will need a *big* ship! In addition you will need the following equipment: orbital mapping probes, surface prospectors and several mining rigs. Orbital mapping probes are also required for mapping systems.
To explore or mine a system you will nearly always need a ship with it's own jump engines as it is rare for a jump gate to have been constructed in an unexplored system. It is quite common however for explored systems to still have unused resources and unmapped planets but these will require permits from the system's owners before mapping or mining can be started (and you often have to pay for the rights to sell the mined material).
Anyway, to work... once the player has arrived in the system the orbital probes can be launched. Each one can have it's own destination (although sending several to the same planet will increase the speed at which that planet is mapped). When the probes have mapped the planet the player will be informed to that effect. The player can either recall the probes and head back to civilisation to register the maps and possibly name the planet/ system or launch a surface prospector from the orbital probe to map the mineral deposits. Once again the player will be informed once the area requested has been mapped and can either recall the probes or send out the mining drones.
If the player leaves the system any orbital probes or surface prospectors which have been left behind will self destruct (to prevent others from raiding them for their data) mining machines are not similarly affected. The positions of all mining probes is recorded in the player's logbook automatically (including systems name, coordinates, entry point and planet id and coordinates).
When the player wants to retrieve the mining drones he/she must enter the system and signal them. If they have enough fuel left inside them then they will come to the surface, lift off and travel to the player's ship. If they do not have sufficient fuel to lift off they will come to the surface (all mining probes will remain below the surface to prevent detection) and signal the player to come and pick them up. All probes have individual signal codes which the player can set (as can other miner's) so it is possible, if the player can get hold of someone else's codes, to hijack the other's machines. Mining machines can be configured to stockpile the materials which have already been processed and can make several trips to and from the player's ship to transfer all the materials.