Simple, really - wear a hat with a huge feather in it while mining.
...what's that? Not the advice you were looking for, you say? Fine, spoilsport. Try these tips instead:
* Limpets are important tools to have. Collector limpets mean you don't have to manually scoop the fruits of your labor, while Prospector limpets will tell you what's inside the rock you're about to bust apart AND will dramatically increase your yield as opposed to mining a non-Prospected spacelump.
* Pristine Metallic rings are your best friends. Not because they contain diamonds, but because they contain the Three Ps - Platinum, Palladium, and Painite.
* Depending on your attention span, you might want to hold off on mining until you have a really big ship - I prefer a Type-7, personally. Mining with a cargo hold that holds less than 100 tons means you're going to be going back and forth a lot to offload.
* Just want to mine an area by yourself, without any NPCs around? Look for rings in uninhabited systems, and avoid using the entrances to Resource Extraction Zones that are marked on your map in populated zones. They will often have quite the NPC population. Also, if you have NPCs on your scanner, boost away from them and keep boosting until they're off your scanner. They'll leave you alone and you can mine in peace. (At least, as of the time of this writing - who knows what future updates hold?)
* Avoid using just one Mining Laser on small hardpoints unless you have autofire capabilities on your controller. Trust me. Your wrist will thank you.
* Don't get cute and try to mine without a shield unless you really enjoy paying repair costs and/or playing Russian Roulette with your ship. Sooner or later, a spacelump is going to hit you. Be prepared.
That's all for now. Did I miss something? Drop it below - knowledge is power! -Sid