Thanks for playing it :) I always like to go for these kind of "big powerful company is generous or bad" vibe. For this the ideas came a bit from Armored Core where the companies quite literally hire you, and the next day hunt you. They just do whatever is most efficient.
One thing we wanted to add in the targeting circle was to highlight efficient resources green and inefficient red. Though I was also a bit worried that this might simplify the game too much (I think part of the fun in finding the most efficient way to mine is by observing). Since you understood it after some attempts I think the onboarding should've been better, maybe a little tutorial.