I don't quite know if I got the question right:
LotC is a roleplay server, I made a mine with torches, stairs, even supports BUT I made 8 stripmining-tunnels to have the most effective way of gathering resources. Well, my bad - never saw a rule saying so but I should have come to the conclusion that it is not allowed at all coz its wrong in any rp reason though I've never seen it in a different way since I started playing.
The ban itself: Can't tell much about it coz I am still banned, no answers to my appeal though stripmining is a time-ban in the cases I've seen (which were quite much lately) and I assume it might take 3 days more so it is a 1 week time-ban.