Mines I don't need

There is a button near the bottom of the main interface (bottom right) for cargo orders. Right click on the planet you want to remove facilities on and it should bring up a list of structures. Check the boxes of the structures you want to get rid of and hit "okay".

It jettisons them, but it works.

Have you tried moving a shipyard ship into that sector and then telling the mine group to recycle itself?

try moving a mine layer into the area and transfer them on board that for reuse.

OH, LOL, explosive mines, not mining mines

Yes, I use my mine layers to scoop them back up and bring them home to scrap.

Can u scoop mines back up?!?!?

I always thought that once you deployed them you wouldn't be able to retrieve them by design!
And AFAIK it should be this way.

Can you do that in SEIV as well? Never tried it...

In SE IV, mines are irretrievable, but can be ordered to self-destruct.

It sounds like that was changed in SE V.

(I hope to purchase a computer that can run SE V sometime this month; then I'll finally be able to check things myself before answering.)

"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it /is/ a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

Yes, you can scoop them up, I've done it.

What you need to do, as detailed as I can think and to guarantee success, is of course have a mine layer design. Go to the planet with the mines and open the cargo screen. I always switch to condensed view because it seems to work more often. Make sure you minelayer is highlighted green in the left window and then click on the mine you want to move over. Click move cargo left until you have the amount you want.

Then we all know you fly off and put the mines wherever you want them pretty much the same way.

Moving them is the same as well, fly your ML into the same hex, open the recover/launch interface (or cargo one, I forget which one works, I think it's cargo), make sure your ML is highlighted green, etc, make sure it's in condensed view, and then move cargo left towards your ship.

It has worked for me at least, I use mines to guard the warp points of valuable systems and then come in with boarding/repair ships and take what is still alive but immobile

That is one thing I love about this game, I was in a major battle against 2 alien races and ended up having about 11 older ships stranded for a few years before I got to them and fixed them up