Likewise, I've sent 4 miners in and they vanish into a blank screen.

Also not a bug - but possibly an error. Bottom level miners have 10k health so combined with a player defending them how can anyone ever take a single tiny patch from someone? The current holder of all the patches at another mine is untouchable to anyone not many, many levels higher. You can't even use your own miners to help out attacking :(

JimmyJamm,
thanks for bringing this to our attention. As professions are open beta at the moment we are still working on it to make it better but I assure you it will be fixed as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

Looking better - the progress indicator appears at least :) Not sure if anything is coming out yet or not.

Salissa,
should be fine now, I completed the first quest yesterday without having any issues.

OK Pond is working properly now, however it gives 33 pieces in a 2 hour period whereas the other 2 mines give 77....is this by design or a flaw? Cost of hiring miners remains the same and the time mining is the same, but pond mine has fewer choices on types of mine, number of mines available, and yields less.