I used to love mining operations. When you got a massive group together to do it you really got the feeling you were stripping the systems of their resources, since you'd quickly exhaust an asteroid field and have to move the whole operation.
We had miners and haulers and support craft all working together to make far more ISK than we could make alone.
We would allow anyone in the corp to come along and mine in the big operations, even if they only had a cheapy small ship (or an ill-suited ship like a battleship etc) as long as they mined alongside us. We then paid them an equal share to a Hulk pilot (or the guys running the haulers) allowing them to very quickly make enough to buy a low-level mining barge to bring along to later operations.
My T2-equipped Hulk (named Thunder in Paradise, obviously) would be stripping at a huge rate, while a Gallente frigate was beavering away next to me with a couple of mining lasers. If people enjoyed it they were usually up into the second mining barge (the one below the Hulk that I forget the name of) within the week.
We also had an Orca or two acting as the gang leader, providing boosts and so on, and as a central location for the haulers to warp to (the 200k tractor on the Orca was very handy for pulling in local cans) .
I know some people hate mining, and when you're on your own I can see why, but as a group it turned into an afternoon social gathering where we'd shoot the shit while digging up rocks.