The situation is quite clear for me now. Again, thanks for quick responses and explanations.
OFFTOP: I know there is better place for this on this forum (Kudos thread), BUT since we mentioned Mollys and even one Molly gave his few words in this thread I just wanted to say that Molly's RP is simply AWESOME - I liked it very much! Keep up the good work guys!
The miner is either new or can't speak English well enough to understand the rules or is trying to exploit a rule that doesn't exist. My guess the miner you speak of hasn't read the rules and has no intention of doing so.
As others here have said its best to just kill the miner and take the ore. You've done your part by actually role playing the part of a pirate.