I've tried following whats going on in the packages, and it doesn't seem like it has anything to do with their decision to mine. I'm trying to make a character type do something similar (build things with hammers) but I can't figure out how it works for miners.

Its just an idle animation. The mining is actually a marker tied to the ore rocks. NPCs are told to activate it, and theres a script running on the rock that checks if its a player or NPC, and if its an NPC, then it just plays the idle animation without giving any ore.

Check out http://www.creationkit.com/Idle_Markers. I believe that the mining animation is from the PickaxeMiningFloorMarker, PickaxeMiningTableMarker, and PickaxeMiningWallMarker furnitures.

Thems the markers.

I've been looking at them, and I'll have to change it so they use hammers. Unfortunately, the Idle animation in the properties on the script for PickaxeIdleWall is something called IdlePickaxeExit, which I cannot find in the CK. Anyone know anything about this?

The more I look at these, the more confused I am. I think I'll try looking around at how to make your own idles.
EDIT: Nvm that's an even bigger can of worms.