Mining

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.

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

• Blacksmithing
• Engineering

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

Suggested Classes

• Warrior - Plate smith
• Paladin - Plate smith
• Hunter - Mail smith or Engineer
• Shaman - Mail smith
• Druid - Stealth Mining for money
• Rogue - Stealth Mining for money

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

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:

• Smelt Gold (155)
• Smelt Steel (165):  [Iron Bar] and  [Coal] into  [Steel Bar]
• Smelt Mithril (175)

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

Skill	Item	Components	Yield
1	Mine Copper Copper Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
1	Smelt Copper Copper Bar	1x Copper Ore Requires: Forge	1
65	Mine Incendite Incendite Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
65	Mine Lesser Bloodstone Lesser Bloodstone Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
65	Mine Tin Tin Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
65	Smelt Bronze Bronze Bar	1x Copper Bar, 1x Tin Bar Requires: Forge	2
65	Smelt Tin Tin Bar	1x Tin Ore Requires: Forge	1
75	Mine Silver Silver Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
75	Smelt Silver Silver Bar	1x Silver Ore Requires: Forge	1
125	Mine Iron Iron Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
125	Smelt Iron Iron Bar	1x Iron Ore Requires: Forge	1
150	Mine Indurium Indurium Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
155	Mine Gold Gold Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
155	Smelt Gold Gold Bar	1x Gold Ore Requires: Forge	1
165	Smelt Steel Steel Bar	1x Iron Bar, 1x Coal Requires: Forge	1
175	Mine Mithril Mithril Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
175	Smelt Mithril Mithril Bar	1x Mithril Ore Requires: Forge	1
230	Mine Dark Iron Dark Iron Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
230	Mine Truesilver Truesilver Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
230	Smelt Dark Iron Dark Iron Bar	8x Dark Iron Ore Requires: Black Forge	1
230	Smelt Truesilver Truesilver Bar	1x Truesilver Ore Requires: Forge	1
250	Mine Small Thorium Thorium Ore	Requires: Mining Pick
250	Smelt Thorium Thorium Bar	1x Thorium Ore Requires: Forge	1
270	Mine Rich Thorium Thorium Ore	Requires: Mining Pick