Out of curiosity, is this available in multiplayer, and if so, which physical machine is the "host"? Is it the Minecraft server or is VM execution somehow replicated on the clients (first player that enters an unloaded chunk?)?
I remember how some people done quarries in the 1.4-1.7 versions of Minecraft (I don't exactly remember which) by simply putting a chunk loader object from other mod and programming the robot to mine it. The robot had a diamond pickaxe and could drop and get items, so when the inventory were full, it could drop all of the objects in a chest or other place.