Planet Crack

Planet Crack or Planet Cracking, is a term used in the Dead Space series, and games, used to describe when a planet is literally split open to be mined for valuable resources.

Procedure
What's known is that a large chuck of a planet is broken off with powerful lasers, and then brought inside a "Planet-Cracker"-class ship via gravity tethers where it is then stripped and it's ore content is studied.