The ways to go about mining:

1. Company mining: You sign with a company to find, bust the rocks they're looking for, and earn a steady wage. You stay within the company's space, under the aegis of company guards. A pretty dull lifestyle, except for the occasional claim-jumper.

Dazz's Idea: Have a miner's guild which would offer you a mining location in exchange for a portion of the profits and an initial charge. It would patrol the area for interlopers, too.

3. Claim jumping: You find someone else's claim (personal or corporate) and try to either chase them off, or just steal what you can without them noticing. This could lend itself to heavy firefights, should the police or company headquarters get involved (though the idea is to not stick around that long). Listen in the bars for rumors of who has a good claim and try to take it from them.

4. Free mining: Available only in anarchies and unexplored systems. Find an area and just start in. In anarchies, you'll probably find that people are all too eager to steal your loot. In unexplored systems, you'll have trouble finding an area profitable enough to pay for all the fuel you expended getting there and back. But if you can do it, go for it.

Note: You can turn your mining equipment against ships and stations, but the local law enforcement isn't going to like it...

The Tools of the Trade:

While you will need mining sensors, most of the rest is interchangable. To mine a planet, you can use either an Automated Mining Platform or a Mining Ship. To mine an asteroid or other object in space, you'll need to use mining missiles or a nano beam. And always look out for any hints or rumors that there's a rich planet out there, waiting to be mined.

Automated Mining Platform: You launch these and they attempt to locate the most profitable seam nearby. They will only wander a certain radius from their drop point, but you may have to look for them after they fill their cargo hold. These systems are big and expensive, and you might lose some to piracy if you leave them alone while you carry out other errands...

Mining Missiles: Mining missiles explode before impact, showing the target with nanobots that refine the rock. This process takes time, however, and you may have to guard your find before you can recover the refined materials. They cost more than ordinary missiles, I'd wager.

Mining Sensors: Mining sensors have a short range, requiring that you pass close over the planet's surface to obtain sensor data. The sensor will mark areas of higher mineral density on your HUD, but you'll have to land and mine to determine the viability of the site for yourself.

Note: Hopefully, the sensor will point out interesting areas for the player to explore, like deep caverns, cavities in asteroids, high plateaus, craters, volcanic basins, mountain ranges, etc, thus providing a very interesting mining experience. Different materials could be found at different locations of course, and different worlds would probably have vastly different compositions.

Note #2: Exactly how the sensor will mark the mining area on your HUD is yet to be decided, but it has been suggested that it could 'paint' the region and/or lay a beacon on its epicenter.

Nano Beam: Ideal for mining small asteroids, the nano beam fires nanobots toward its targets which refine the minerals inside. This is the same process used in the Mining Missile, and takes the same amount of time, during which you must guard the asteroid to prevent it from slipping out of your hands.