Mining is already pretty profitable, if you bother to look around for a good spot and are willing to travel to the other side of the sector to get the best price.
I found a mining spot that gets me about 4.5 mil in profits, thats using the mining ship which has a hold of 1400.
If I wanted to I could probably increase that by mining up in the taus, but the mining ship has a wierd shape and gets bounced around alot, not to mention the fact that the outcasts would shred it, mining ships don't fight well no matter what weapons you use.
Timing is an important factor when trying to find/see fights between players, I have to stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning (my time) just to see alot of the players on the server, otherwise I usually only talk to them here on the forums.
That would be impressive, having seen them fight side by side ;0)
As for mining, I hadn't factored it as a viable income option before, but I can't see why not. Though it is (perhaps realistically) labour intensive, I can see the benefits of low risk money making when you're in the lower levels. Maybe I'll give it a shot once 4.81 rolls around.