Amazing. For the past 2 weeks in Ekura and Tsugawa area ALL asteroids have been mined from Downtime to downtime to 5 mins left to mine on each asteroid.
So basically I am mining an asteroid for 5 mins and switching to another and so forth 
This has been going on for the past 2 weeks. What gives?
CCP probably coded NPC Mining Fleets to do that.
And it’s a good bet the NPC Mining Fleets are doing it in all systems.
@Okpu You might need to give more details, how much is 5 minutes to mine in m3, is it always exactly 5 minutes to mine, or just an approx figure you’ve given, are you mining the entire belt out every day (or is someone) etc.
Removed the off topic portion of the post. -ISD Dorrim Barstorlode
The asteroids are simply very small, so they are usually empty by the second cycle.
So it is not worthwhile to mine the same asteroid with both laser.
Are those mechanics still in place? I think they are.
If you pop asteroids in your belts, it takes longer (several days) for them to grow back.
It became nigh impossible to cultivate your belts with NPC miners around though. But the systems without them do exist (no NPC stations) and they tend to have ginormous rocks, while others only have pebbles.
Removed some off topic posts.
The problem is, in some systems nothing left to grow because of NPC mining fleet…
was advised earlier its better off to just not minepyrox/scordite etc now and only mine veldspar which is now everyones go.
Attacking them doesn’t trigger concord response I believe. You have to make sure they are destroyed or they warp out and come back later though.