Okay, I made some 400-ton pods for my 10,000-ton Taorl Riftliner-Class Merchant Tender (the design is posted in the forum but is more easily located with the word document in my signature) that can handle the mining and refining. The Taorl can handle 26 400-ton pods externally, so it can do more than one would expect.
For your convenience, I will share it here again.
To make the process work, one mining drone pod has more than enough mining drones to provide material to a single mineral refinery pod. The extras could help move product along with the eight cargo shuttles. The mineral refinery pod produces crystals & gems and precious metals that can be stored in the 12 cargo pods and the common and uncommon ore is shipped to the 8 smelter pods. 7.5 would be enough to process the output, but dropping one adds six days to the process. As it is, it can mine and refine a full load for the ship in 12 days and the smelting will wrap up after one more day.
With 1 mining drone pod, 1 mineral refinery pod, 8 smelting pods, and 12 cargo pods, that leaves 4 docking clamps for the four 400-ton system defense boats I'd added here to this.
The cost of the equipment:
The expenses:
The good news is that the average value of the 13 day processing run (leaving time to jump in and jump out in a month) is 77,025,000 credits.
I hope these help.
Taorl Riftliner-Class Merchant Tender (redesigned)
This Imperialized version of the Aslan Taorl Riftliner is a civilian tender that can haul 26 400-ton mixed pods of cargo, fuel, low passengers, or standard passengers. The rapid changeover of preprepared pods allow the ship to only spend between 26 and 31 hours from jumping into a system and jumping out. Its efficiency makes it a favorite of the lines that can afford it and the network they need to have servicing it.

First up, the Mining Drone Pod.
Taorl Riftliner-Class Merchant Tender 400-Ton Mining Drone Pod
This is the 400-ton mining drone pod for the Imperialized version of the Aslan Taorl Riftliner. Can feed a mineral refinery pod with plenty of drones left over to help move refined ores and raw materials. Comes with 79 sets of mining drones (395 in total). Does not include the default processing equipment as those tasks are handled by the mineral refinery pod.
Then we have the mineral refinery pod.
Taorl Riftliner-Class Merchant Tender 400-Ton Mineral Refinery Pod
This is the 400-ton mineral refinery pod for the Imperialized version of the Aslan Taorl Riftliner. It is capable of producing an average of 670 tons of refined ore a day with the raw materials being loaded in a five-ton airlock on one side and the finished product coming out a five-ton airlock on the other side once the work is complete. The finished products are moved by the ship's crew in one of the eight attached cargo shuttles with the help of spare mining drones.
The breakdown per day is approximately: 335 tons of common ore, 201 tons of uncommon ore, 100.5 tons of gems & crystals, and 33.5 tons of precious metals. The crystals & gems and the precious metals are stored as is but the ores are sent on to a smelter pod for further refining. It has a crew of seven refinery workers and one medic.
And next comes the smelter pod.
Taorl Riftliner-Class Merchant Tender 400-Ton Smelter Pod
This is the 400-ton smelter pod for the Imperialized version of the Aslan Taorl Riftliner. It is capable of processing 71.4 tons of processed ore into 35.7 tons of raw materials. It takes 7.5 smelters to process the output of a single mineral refinery pod. There is no crew aboard but they can access the pod to perform maintinace. The refined ore is brought in through a five-ton airlock on one side and the raw materials come out a five-ton airlock on the other side once the work is complete. The finished product is moved by the ship's crew in one of the eight attached cargo shuttles with the assistance of spare mining drones.
And the output is stored in cargo pods.
Taorl Riftliner-Class Merchant Tender 400-Ton Cargo Pod (redesigned)
A Mongoose 2e design. This is the 400-ton cargo pod for the Imperialized version of the Aslan Taorl Riftliner. Holds 395 tons of cargo.
Since you said you needed system defense boats, and I have some 400-ton ones of my own design that fit right on the tender with the 400-ton pods, I present to you the Hammer System Defense Boats. If you sacrifice one of the 400-ton cargo pods, it can carry 4 500-ton boats. Or you can download the spreadsheets (link below) and add 400 tons to the adjusted tonnage on the tender without difficulty.
Hammer-Class System Defense Boat
I wanted something hard-hitting to defend a system and put together the Hammer-Class System Defense Boat. With its medium missile bay, it can throw two dozen missiles at a time and has eighteen reloads in the magazine. It comes with a pair of triple sandcaster turrets to provide some defense.

