wireless mouse intermittently drops out/stops working

I have just bought a Mac Mini. I'm not a fan of Apple keyboards or mice, so I've bought a third party keyboard and I'm using a mouse that I already had (Microsoft Wireless Mouse 1000). Whilst it works fine with my Macbook Pro and PC, with the mini I get drop outs in the form of jerky movement and occassionally stopping long enough to see it just isn't moving. The mini works fine with a wired mouse.

My gut feeling from playing around with the different mice and computers is that it is actually the aluminium case shielding the signal from the mouse (as both are on the desktop and the mini sits at the back of the desk with the USB ports on the back and a great chunk of aluminium therefore in front of it.

I have a USB hub built in to the monitor, but that seems to have the same problem - the USB ports are behind the panel and associated electronics. Sadly, my keyboard (Ducky Zero DK2108) doesn't have a hub built in, so I can't connect the dongle to that either.

I'm just surprised I haven't seen (after a lot of googling) other complaints about the same. I may have to reluctantly buy a Bluetooth mouse as the BT antenna is of course outside of the Alu case. An alternative may be to use a small USB hub that can be positioned with line-of-sight to the mouse. It seems absurd I would have to do either of those things.

Can anyone else comment on their experiences?

Thanks!