It would be nice to see the mining laser doing something to the asteroid, a little effect of rock pieces/dust coming from where the beam is hitting would add a little more realism. When playing on VR it's so easy to get lost in the game as it feels like being in space, however when mining it kind of loses that seeing your laser just sit there. "The difference between something good and something great is the attention to detail".

Up yer GFX settings.

Oh ya?! Well up yo...oh, I get it.

Yes, this exists already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOfTqv-PTwI

0:56 and so on.

(yes I know it's not VR, couldn't find a video of VR mining)

VR is also much, much more performance intensive than the regular game. So, don't expect visuals like this on a GearVR. But it should work on a Rift with a robust gaming desktop.