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Mining Icon WoW Icon 16x16 Mining (Profession)
List of ore veinsList of ore by zoneQuestsRecipesTrainersLeveling guide

When can I mine X?[]

Skill Requirements for each type of Vein (When can I mine X):

Vein Type Skill Needed
Copper 1
Tin 65
Incendicite* 65
Silver 75
Lesser Bloodstone* 75
Iron 125
Indurium* 150
Gold 155
Mithril 175
Dark Iron* 230
Truesilver 230
Small Thorium 250
Rich Thorium 275


* https://classic-wow.wikia.com/wiki/Mining#Location_and_Purpose_of_Special_Veins:

When can I smelt it?[]

Skill Requirements to smelt each type of Ore:

Ore Skill Needed
Copper 1
Tin 65
Bronze* 65
Silver 75
Iron 125
Gold 155
Steel* 165
Mithril 175
Truesilver 230
Dark Iron** 230
Thorium 250


Where do I find it?[]

Locations of each type of normal Vein:[]

  • Copper – Alterac Mountains, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Desolace, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Duskwood, Elwynn Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills, Loch Modan, Mulgore, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Tirisfal Glades, Westfall, and Wetlands
  • Tin – Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Desolace, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Loch Modan, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Westfall, and Wetlands
  • Iron – Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, and Wetlands
  • Mithril Deposit – Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Azshara, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Western Plaguelands, and Winterspring
  • Small Thorium Vein – Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Un’Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, and Winterspring
  • Rich Thorium Vein – Azshara, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Silithus, Un’Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, and Winterspring


Locations of each type of uncommon Vein:[]

  • Silver – Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Badlands, Darkshore, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Loch Modan, Redridge Mountains, Searing Gorge, Silverpine Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Barrens, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Westfall, and Wetlands
  • Gold – Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Azshara, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Western Plaguelands, Wetlands, and Winterspring
  • Truesilver – Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Azshara, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Un’Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, and Winterspring

Location and Purpose of Special Veins:[]

  • Rethban Ore – Any Copper or Tin mine in Redridge Mountains will drop these randomly.
    Rethban Ore’s for a quest given by Foreman Oslow, in Redridge Mountains. He should be located at the southeast side of Lakeshire. This isn’t really related to mining, since mobs will drop it just as frequently, but I added it by request.
  • Incendicite – Wetlands, in the cave directly north of Dun Algaz on the map.
    Incendicite is the objective of the alliance quest Search for Incendicite, which is given to you by Pilot Stonegear in Dun Morogh.
  • Indurium – Inside Uldaman, in the various tunnels.
    Indurium is the objective of the neutral quest Indurium Ore given by Pozzik at the race track in Thousand Needles.
  • Lesser Bloodstone – Arathi Highlands, in the northeast corner of the map.
    Lesser Bloodstone Ore is the objective of the alliance quest Favor for Krazek, given by Krazek in Booty Bay.
  • Dark Iron – In Blackrock Depths and Molten Core, deposits can be found in any of the numerous caverns.
    Dark Iron serves 2 purposes. You can either smelt it to create bars for any of the Blackrock Depths exclusive recipes, or you can turn it in to Lokhtos Darkbargainer in the bar in Blackrock Depths to increase your Thorium Brotherhood faction. When you get your Thorium Brotherhood faction to Honored and above, Lokhtos will sell you some really nice crafting recipes. Before you get too excited about that prospect, read the paragraph below about smelting Dark Iron Ore.
    To create one Dark Iron Bar, you need 8 Dark Iron Ore, and you can only smelt Dark Iron at the Dark Forge, which is located near the portal to Molten Core. Before you can smelt it, you need to learn how to smelt Dark Iron Ore from Gloom’rel deep in Blackrock Depths in the 7 Ghosts room. He’ll teach you how to smelt it if you give him 20 Gold Bars, 10 Truesilver Bars, and 2 Star Rubies. You can only make items that require Dark Iron Bars at the Black Anvil, which is on the other side of the instance where Lord Incendius is located.

Gems found in each type of Vein:

  • Copper – Malachite, Shadowgem, Tigerseye
  • Tin – Jade, Shadowgem, Lesser Moonstone, Moss Agate, Blood Shard(can only be mined in the Barrens, used for a quest)
  • Silver – Shadowgem, Lesser Moonstone, Moss Agate
  • Iron – Aquamarine, Jade, Lesser Moonstone, Citrine
  • Gold – Jade, Lesser Moonstone, Citrine
  • Mithril – Aquamarine, Citrine, Black Vitriol, Star Ruby
  • Truesilver – Aquamarine, Citrine, Star Ruby
  • Dark Iron – Black Diamond, Blood of the Mountain, Black Vitriol
  • Small Thorium – Large Opal, Blue Sapphire, Star Ruby, Black Vitriol
  • Rich Thorium – Arcane Crystal, Azerothian Diamond, Blue Sapphire, Huge Emerald, Large Opal, Star Ruby

Most gems you find are only used in crafting, and can be bought or sold in the AH cheap.

However, a few gems are extremely rare and therefore valuable:

  • Arcane Crystals – Anywhere from 20-40g depending on your server. Drop rate is approximately 3%, although their droprate was reportedly changed in the last patch.
  • Azerothian Diamonds – Anywhere from 40-100g depending on your server. Drop rate is approximately 1%.
  • Blood of the Mountain – Anywhere from 50-150g depending on your server. Drop rate is approximately 1%.

General Information[]

Mining is a gathering Profession used to gather materials for Blacksmithing or Engineering. However, you don't need those Professions to be a miner. You could simply collect resources and sell them to blacksmiths and engineers. You're going to find these spots anyway as you travel throughout the world, so why not cash in on them? However, most people combine mining and blacksmithing or mining and engineering.

Mining Sale Prices: Mining is a very profitable profession at low levels. A stack of 20 copper bars can sell for as much as 100 at the auction house, although prices generally vary between Template:S per stack. This is a very good way for a low level character to make some significant money.

After learning mining you will have the "Find Mineral" button included with your other abilities. By activating this you will be able to see mineral veins (and deposits) on your mini-map, making mining far easier.

To mine a vein or deposit resource, simply right click it. You will be able to loot ore or other items (usually stone and sometimes gems) from the same vein 2 to 4 times. Different veins will require different mining skill levels to loot. For example a mithril vein requires a mining skill of 175.

Ore alone is useless for blacksmithing and engineering plans. The ore must be smelted at a forge to be of any use, becoming a metal bar. When you learn mining you will also gain the smelting ability along with your other skills.

Trainers[]

See mining trainer.

Requirements[]

You need to go buy yourself a mining pick. They are usually sold by a trade merchant NPC or other merchants near the mining trainer, like a mining supplier.

Increasing Mining Skill[]

Gaining skill level in the mining profession can occur by either smelting ores or mining veins. At the beginning, smelting copper is a very fast way to gain mining skill. However this peters out at about skill level 60-75. Even brand new smelting recipes will be green or gray in color, indicating you will not gain skill by smelting that ore. Gold and silver however are an exception, and can be smelted early on to gain skill. However these ores are quite rare. Other than by smelting gold and silver, mining veins is the best way to gain skill. However, even though you can mine one vein up to 4 times, you can only gain one skill point per vein. However, another miner can gain a skill up from that same vein assuming it was not completely looted. 

Template:MiningOreTable

Quest ores may not be smelted, but are not "quest items" per se, and can be sold to other questors if they are willing to buy them.

Mining Etiquette[]

If someone is already looting a resource node, don't try and loot as well. Similarly don't use a speed enhancing ability to grab a node before someone else does. Ask if you can take a whack for the skill up, but otherwise leave the miner alone. In a party, share your nodes with other miners so you can split the skill ups and ores. If somebody is fighting a mob near a mining vein, either help kill the mob, or wait until the person is done, to see if he was planning to mine the vein you saw.

Mining Color Codes[]

Any vein or deposit that can be mined will have a color code on the "Requires Mining" property when you move your pointer over it:

  • Red: Can't be mined.
  • Orange: Difficult to mine, may fail; very good chance of increasing Mining skill, but Mining is one of the professions where an orange level task will not always increase your skill level after completion.
  • Yellow: Moderately difficult to mine, almost never fail; 50% chance of increasing Mining skill level.
  • Green: Easy to mine, should never fail; <50% chance of increasing Mining skill level.
  • Gray: Very easy to mine, should never fail; 0% chance of increasing Mining skill level.

Other Products From Mining[]

When you mine you will always gain Ore, often times stones, and rarely gems. All of these are used in different recipes. Gems are used in many weapon recipes (or other professions, like leatherworking or tailoring) and stones are used in both engineering and blacksmithing. If you have taken blacksmithing with your mining, it may be wise to store those gems to craft weapons later on.

Suggested 2nd profession[]

Much of the products of mining are ingredients common to both smithing and engineering.

Suggested Classes[]

  • Druid - Stealth Mining for money
  • Rogue - Stealth Mining for money
  • Any class that has either Engineering or Blacksmithing.

Income from Mining[]

Mining can be used to make a decent amount of side cash. The higher level people would rather buy the material already mined, than go after it themselves. Also check the auction house and look at the cost of the ore in relation to 10 bars. Sometimes the ore will be more. This is due to high level people smelting the ore to raise their mining skill. Lastly look at the price of bronze. If you can get a stack of copper and tin for less than the price of a stack of bronze it might be worth it to smelt the two together to make the bronze. Remember 1 tin and 1 copper make 2 bronze. Another good area for income is selling Iron and Mithril. Thorium depends on the server, on a new server it sells for a lot, whereas on an old server everyone can mine it. Dark Iron is also another good item to mine, as it is highly valuable for its uses in crafting and gaining reputation with Thorium Brotherhood.

Summary of Skill Levels[]

See ThottBot Table reference for more details.

Apprentice[]

Requirement: No previous Mining skill level required. In each case, smelting refines an ore into a bar. (Exceptions: Bronze is made from copper and tin bars; Steel is made from iron bars and coal chunks.) Ores can be stacked 10 high; bars can be stacked 20 high.
Skill level range: 1 - 75
Sub-skills or basic recipes:
  • Smelt Copper (1)
  • Smelt Tin (50)
  • Smelt Bronze (65): Copper Bar and Tin Bar into 2 × Bronze Bar
  • Smelt Silver (75)
  • Smelt Elementium (1):*: This skill is obtained in Blackwing Lair. Used only for a small number of quests for Epic or Legendary items. Unlike common beliefs, you only need 1 Mining skill in order to be able to use this skill, and do not even need to be a miner to learn it.

Journeyman[]

Requirement: 50 Mining skill level required.
Skill level range: 76 - 150
Sub-skills or basic recipes:
  • Smelt Iron (125)

Expert[]

Requirement: 125 Mining skill level required.
Skill level range: 151 - 225
Sub-skills or basic recipes:

Artisan[]

Requirement: 200 Mining skill level required.
Skill level range: 226 - 300
Sub-skills or basic recipes:
  • Smelt Truesilver (230)
  • Smelt Thorium (250)
  • Smelt Dark Iron (230):*: This skill is taught by an NPC named Gloom'rel, who is situated in the 'Chamber of the Sevens' in the Blackrock Depths instance. He will ask you to bring him a tribute, consisting of two Star Ruby, ten Truesilver Bar, and twenty Gold Bar. Additionally, the skill can only be used at the Black Forge, also in the Blackrock Depths. Eight Dark Iron ores are smelted into one Dark Iron bar.

Mining Products[]

By Skill Level[]

See Mining Detail by Skill level.

By Region[]

See Mining Products available by region.

Quest Items[]

Quest ore cannot be smelted.

Mining Bugs[]

Currently the most consistent mining bug is the "loot" bug and the double vein appearance.

  • The loot bug occurs when your character bends down to loot a bugged vein, but no loot window appears and your character does not stand up. There is no way to tell a bugged vein from a non-bugged vein. You can move away from the vein, but your character will be frozen in the bent-over loot mode and will be unable to loot corpses. There are a few ways to resolve this bug.
    • Log out and log back in.
    • Mine another vein.
    • Open a Clam, or other container type item.
    • Mount up
    • Start Fishing
  • The second bug is the double vein appearance. Sometimes 2 veins will spawn in the same place, effectively doubling the amount of ore you can get. Furthermore, the sprite on your minimap acknowledges the location of both veins on the exact same spot. This is considered a beneficial bug.
  • Another bug is that the minimap might show that a vein exists, but the wall of the mine falls between you and where the minimap indicates the mine is. This is especially annoying if you are above ground, go underground to find it, and discover that you just waded through a lot of mobs in order to get to a vein that you cannot loot.
  • Another bug is that the minimap does not show you where a vein might exist, while there is in fact one right in front of you. This mostly happens underground as well. a few common examples are in BRD, the Dark Iron nodes to not always show up on your minimap.

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