Seems kind of pointless; there's no challenge in mining.

You obviously never played Motherlode. This is similar, and as far as I can tell, there is going to be a story/challenge added later.

This is in early stage (there won't be only mining), there will also be enemies and goals you will have to fulfill to go to another planet. There will be a story, else it is pointless.

As I said at start, Earth is in trouble and the remaining survivors need to find another planet to live on, so they need to mine with the robot to find needed materials and artifacts. Artifacts will help them find plans for the spaceship, after they build it, they can progress to the second planet - Mars to our plan. As they find they can't live there, they are searching for new artifacts that will help them improve the spaceship to fly further. They will need to search quite a few planets so they find one that is suitable for them. In between we plan to make some exciting maps and enemies. We want the player to want to see how the next planet will look like and what he can find there.

We still need to finish the drawing of the spaceship to put it in game and also there will be survivors at the base. They will be observing every planet, making sure the robot is in good condition and of course make another if the first one will blow up (drop too far or just ran out of fuel and too far to bring it back up). Those details are still being planned, we want some survivors to be funny, to make a player laugh if he makes a 'stupid' mistake or a wrong turn or anything else we can think of.

Only two are making this game at the moment and I know it will take some time to finish it. So if you like the story and the vision we have, be patient. We are doing our best and going as fast as we can. If you want to help us, please go to -> http://igg.me/at/Mining/x/2399266 every contribution, like or share will be greatly appreciated. That way you can also shape some of the game if you want (see the link for more information).