You are point on MadToolz, the few existing mines are tightly held and as a result very little combat takes place over mines. Plarium go back and look at how poor the participation has been in any mine related event. They have become a non event.
Not sure what "players on the server are out of mines" means, but it seems like there has been a stalemate for quite awhile. A few stronger combines hold all the mines, and not even the minimun number needed to achieve level 20, the mines had to be shared to get to where they are. The existing mines are held too tighly to be taken by smaller combimes needing to hold them in order to level up thier headquarters. To me that sounds like the players have run out of mines on the server. But then, I have no idea what your analytics are looking at.
Grover I understand that Plarium is in business to make money and they have experience at doing just that. However, to make money on a sustainable basis they need to also give customers what they want or they will go elsewhere. Also Plarium should understand it is much easier to keep a customer than it is to go out and find a new one.