Ah, a recieving mass driver. Good call. That could have been messy :wink:
Thanks
You seem to think that once a CMC has established a colony on a body, that you can't do anything (colony-wise) with that body. That is not the case. The CMC creates one of your colonies, to which you can assign a governor, transport auto-mines, transport pop (assuming they don't die off due to colony cost the moment you land them) etc. As far as I know, the only consideration here is that (I think) a CMC won't establish itself on a world where you already have a colony. Note that once a CMC is there it will grow (add more CMC) even if you have automines etc. there. Note that if you put automines on the colony, you'll have to put your own mass driver there too - the civies won't let you use theirs.
For more info on CMC try searching for "Commercial Mining Complex" (or similar stuff) in *Steve* threads - you should find the post where he introduced them, probably in mechanics.
I suspect (but do not know) that CMC will only establish themselves on moons, asteroids, and comets (i.e. no planets).
At 50,000, I wouldn't worry about them too much - simply let the civies do their thing and then reap the rewards
John