nowadays (past few decades) 'mine' (and farm) are often used in place of gather, esp. when it comes to game communities, e.g. 'mine' wood in 'warcraft III'. Farm any sort of materials, equipment, reputation, etc. So I suppose it's not that far fetched.
True, of course, however the spice mining in Star Wars refers to mining minerals and converting them to drugs. And of course, without any doubt both the mining and the spice have influence from Dune.
