There’s certainly no evidence of anything militarily significant. Some limited civilian production seems probable, though.
That makes sense. After all each "outpost" needs to be protected from the domestic "wildlife". Keeping them small would reduce the amount of protection needed. Say, the mine itself, a smelter to refine the ore so that less material needs to be transported to the holdfast factories plus quarters for the workers and guards. Oh, and of course a small dropship port for transportation. Roads and railways outside the base fortifications after all would be ... useless.
The question is did Amaris rely only on the prisoners (and handheld tools) for mining?
Or did he use some mining and industrial Mechs to raise production levels?
For transport conveyor belts and low tech ICE trucks could be used. But some mining Mechs to raise production of ores and some industrial Mechs to load a dropship might make sense.
(After all they did use some industrial Mechs for felling trees. Maple Argent? So use of them is not totally impossible. And trying to escape in them - if they are piloted by prisoners at all - seems to be ill advised given the wildlife.)
If so then some small / midsize workshops for repairs and production of spare parts and consumables might exist. After all mining accidents happen. Consumable material will have to be replaced. Perhaps at a higher rate on a high gravity world? And if they had to wait weeks or months to import a specific spare part by jumpship mining production might take a hit. Not something Amaris would like. And since dictators dislike hearing bad news and tend to punish their own followers too, not just the prisoners ....
Said subordinates might have wanted "insurance" against such "displeasure" after the first or second temper tantrum?
I mean it´s almost impossible to store every needed spare part in case of freak accidents. Much easier to establish small / midsized workshops with "flexible" tool equipment to produce / repair said spare parts fast.
That would mean that once they have the resources and manpower to really look at the outposts they might be able to produce spare parts for mining and industrial Mechs still existing in the inner sphere? Perhaps even reverse engineer a model?
The workshops after all might have the blueprints?
Other than that I have to admit I can´t think of any (limited) civilian production that might be located in one of the smaller mining towns? I mean just think of the tungsten mine. Anything else except tungsten needed for civilian production would have to be transported there. While you have the holdfast which already got supplied by
all the mines of the planet. Wouldn´t it be easier to produce at the holdfast? Satorious mentioned noteputers? The holdfast is already producing electronics and Star League era Neurohelmets for the Mechs so why "outsource" noteputers to a mining outpost?
The only reason you would want to produce something at a mining outpost - except specialized spare parts for the equipment there perhaps - would be higher secrecy and perhaps better control of distribution?
Not impossible but right now I can´t think of anything? What civilian production would deserve that extra effort?