I have been collecting surface ores for the past few days on Sanctuary. I had a surplus of quartz and tier 2 ores in storage and I required iron, aluminium and carbon primarily for industry, so I began collecting hematite, bauxite and coal exclusively, leaving everything else on the ground. It wasn't until today that I noticed there is very little of my target ore remaining, and in an attempt to encourage respawns I began to collect the other remaining ores. Occasionally a respawn will trigger but they are becoming rarer; so rare in fact that whole areas of my territory now have no ores in them and thus cannot seemingly be replenished. Before I started to selectively mine certain ores I had a verdant territory covered with every kind of ore and the respawns would always trigger.
Have I inadvertently caused a death spiral of diminishing respawns? Anybody else have a similar issue? Is it even an issue, or an intended feature of the game?