So, someone I know used the exploit.
Usually, when you hit the 1st mine 40 pearls are needed to continue, next mine it becomes 100, then 200 or so. Don't remember the exact progression but the number increases substantially with each hit.
During the bug timeframe, this person went deep diving with around 1100-1200 pearls, kept hitting mines and using pearls to prolong the dive. After losing some 600 pearls the game stopped deducting pearls, so all the future dives were like free even though the screen showed that you need to pay x00 pearls or so. This person went till level 100 which is the end of the dive.
Got some 9 million gold, 5 million sugar, 4 legendary items, 7 legendary parts, 10ish epic items etc.
Haven't yet heard if banned or not, will know by EOD or so.