If so then that's a change between beta 3 and 1.0. The cast was put in place so the scouts could automate mine sweeping, but all mines caught in the ability radius were detected and killable, whether or not the ship hit it with the ability.

As it is now, it's pretty much impossible to shoot down the homing mines since they're always invulnerable before they hit

Yeah, I'm currently having a problem with this as well, however, since each scout ship is relatively inexpensive and takes about 3 mines before it dies, I'm still using it as a minesweeper

Remember mines are actually sorta expensive, and take a lot more time to rebuild than scouts, so it's not really... THAT bad.  Random idea, what happens when you pair flak ships with scouts?  The flak might take out the mines more effectively since it has 360 degree firing, so it can react faster.

...A'course, I'd try that myself but Sins has the "decompression error" when I try to re-install it from beta entrenchment.  Why doesn't stardock just release a simple utility to clear out all Sins-related files, directories, and registry entries rather than ask the end-user to hunt through their system for these little things?  A utility that does that would take almost no effort... I'd make it myself but I'm busy with work that I actually get paid for.

Seem annatar found the bug with the mines. How ever their migth be a 2nd one. While the enemy had a fleet and ownership of the planet the mines would home on my ships from outside the radius of scouts. After the enemy was gone except for his mine my scouts coudl easily approch the mines and detect them without the mine homming.