Just remove public mines.
FO2 like random resources in caves, is much more fun. Gathering mats make u think about what to spend on, and it's sole purpose does not end in farming XP from crafting. It is generally a bad direction if an MMO gives you the possibility / best option, to do things which a script/bot could do for levels or gold/resources. Also, most of the crafted stuff goes to waste for vendors, so basically a huge amount of wealth is generated and wasted through this system, bc crafting is too easy and has no real value except high tier. All this is wasted brain effort, botting, someone doing something typical repetitive and boring work. It's their choise, taht's true, but it's still a disrespect for this great game itself.
Enter random place, find a cave, kill geckos, mine the cave, cross fingers not to get ganked, return to base ^^
You got fun (if you like to PvE), risk (can be found by players randomly on map), reward (resource has higher value this way).
Besides this, more content is needed, but the FO2 guys solved the mining part pretty good.
About private mines, I don't care. Imo if u spend the caps for it, you already know what u signed up for. Private mines should be for factions, like an entire faction can use it, maybe has deeper levels with stronger mobs which can be cleared, very tiresome to solo alone if possible. Mobs regenerate/respawn after some time.
Also slaves and companions are for the original single player Fallout game. This is an MMO, or should be, find people for companions, delegate gathering to the peons in ur faction
I like this project, don't get me wrong, but content and changes are needed.