It will be added, but not soon. Currently core game mechanics are priority so my roadmap looks like this:
0: Fix regressions introduced with network API change to remove them from my todo list (broken inventory sync, chat)
1: Update save/load system to make it possible to store minimum amount of data about all visited sectors, so world map can be generated without loading all the created sector files from disk one by one. This will also be used to make navigation in the world finally possible. (november 2017)
2:
Once again iterate over building system to adjust block parameters
(mass, power, thrust, etc.) according to their scale (dec 2017?)
?: Develop a way to unload sectors from memory when there are no players (jan 2018?)
?: Add some npc stations/ships made of 5-10 blocks, those dont move and do absolutely nothing, to further tweak save/load system to make it possible to store more then just asteroids (jan 2018? feb 2018?)
?: ??? (2018? 2028?)
?: profit!!!
I can potentially make it possible to mine asteroids in like 1 or 2 days if I will put some work in it, but it will not add any goals or gameplay value at this stage (what’s the point to have an additional counter in inventory anyway), simply because there is no use of any resources yet, and in order to make any use of it, the above mechanics and even more have to be done.
I’d say the game will stay in unplayable state for a looooong time.