The trouble with strip mining the moon is that it is a pristine international geological park where one side is permanently visible from Earth*. In terms of park visits it’s been seen by pretty much every human that ever existed. Take that, Yosemite. The far side will be banned from exploitation to maintain its unique park status as being almost completely radio silent.
Perhaps the mining will take place behind the ridge line of limbward mountains: technically on the near side but without being visible. Going underground feels like a bit of a stretch.
On the far side, how far does one have to be from the anti-Earth point before one can fire up the WiFi without pissing off the space telescopes?
Who will even regulate this stuff? Do we extend the Antarctic treaty for whole-lunar purposes?
*Worst case, a 5km wide strip mine is 10 pixels on a DSLR photo, but that’s still too much for some.
Might be possible theoretically. But certain infeasible in any level of practise.
Is it easy though?
The moon surface is full of nasty regolith that can jam up machines pretty quickly. Plus the lack of atmosphere means that any small particle you accelerate fast enough goes into a partial orbit around the moon and hits you on its way back.