Pay-to-play Mining training

This article provides tips on training the Mining skill for members.

Varrock Armor
The members-only Varrock Armor is extremely useful for training mining. It gives the player a 10.0% chance of mining two ores instead of one, taking the same amount of time as it would have taken to mine just one ore, and giving full experience for both ores. The level (1, 2, or 3) of Varrock Armor does not affect the probability of mining double ores; however, it does affect what ores the double ore effect applies to.

Lava Titan
The Lava Titan requires 83 summoning, lasts about 1 hour, costs a couple thousand coins per pouch, and gives an invisible boost of +10 mining while it is summoned. It is very useful to have summoned when mining and is most commonly used at the Quarry for powermining granite and/or sandstone.

Shooting Stars
Shooting stars do not give much mining experience for the time it takes to find them, and therefore are not recommended as a way to train mining. However, if you happen to see a shooting star land while you are mining, it may be worth your while to mine it.

Mining for Money
Mining is not commonly used as a money-making skill on P2P. This is because there are not many money-making methods involving Mining in Members that are not also available in Free-to-play, while Members opens up many money-making methods in other skills.

Levels 1-15
For these first few levels, simply mine copper or tin, availble in many mines, such as the one southeast of Varrock. It does not really matter if the ores are dropped or kept.

Levels 15-60
Mining iron is actually not much worse money than mining coal or mithril, and is much faster xp, so is recommended to at least level 60, or even 85. The absolute fastest place to mine and bank iron is to mine it at the Piscatoris mine and bank it using Spirit Kyatts and Rings of duelling or Amulets of glory. Once you start to 1-hit almost all the iron, you can mine and bank well over 1k iron per hour using this method, making over 100k gp profit per hour.

For those who do not have the 57 summoning required for the Spirit Kyatt, alternative places to mine iron are the Al Kharid Mine, the Yanille mine, the Ardougne eastern mine, or the East Varrock Mine.

Levels 60-85
Switching from mining iron to mining gold may be a good alternative. The fastest way to mine gold is to locate your Player-owned house in Brimhaven and mine gold at the Brimhaven north-western mine, banking using Teleport to House and Rings of duelling or Amulets of glory.

Levels 85-99
Mining runite is the fastest possible money with mining. The best location to mine it is the Wilderness Runite mine. The Heroes' Guild Mine is another option, safer but more crowded. Both locations have 2 runite rocks. Mining runite can make 300k to 600k gp per hour. Speed can improved by keeping track of the runite spawn times and logging into a world just as the ores spawn, so you can eliminate competition when mining for long periods of time.

Mining for Experience
Mining for experience involves dropping all the ores you mine so you don't have to bank them. This is sometimes called "powermining" or "dropmining".

Levels 1-15
For these first few levels, simply mine and drop copper or tin.

Levels 15-75
Mining iron is the fastest mining experience up until approximately level 75. There are two locations in RuneScape that have three iron rocks arranged so that they can be mined only by turning. These are the Ardougne eastern mine and the Piscatoris mine.

Levels 75-99
Mining granite is commonly believed to be the fastest mining experience at high mining levels. However, it is actually faster to use a method that involves mining a combination of granite and sandstone.

Both granite and sandstone are located only in the Quarry, in the Kharidian desert south of the Bandit Camp. The desert effect occurs here; strategies to counteract it include wearing an Enchanted water tiara or carrying Waterskins and filling them using Humidify. There are many spots in the Quarry that are commonly used to train. These include:


 * Two locations with 2 granite rocks that can be mined only by turning
 * Two locations with 3 granite rocks in a row
 * A location with 4 granite rocks in the south of the mine that is just as good as the line of 3 granite rocks
 * Several locations with 2 granite rocks and 1 sandstone, with each round taking 2 walks and 1 turn
 * One location with 2 granite rocks and 2 sandstones, with each round taking 2 walks and 2 turns

The most commonly used spots are the top two types of spots (4 spots), while the best spot is actually the last one.

Experience Rates and Tips for Maximizing Speed
The easiest and most commonly used methods for powermining are to let your inventory fill up completely, then drop all the rocks, or to drop rocks after each round.

The fastest method actually involves dropping rocks while walking or turning. This can be done by clicking the next rock immediately after mining the previous one, then dropping 1-3 rocks very quickly, then re-clicking the next rock.

In cases where you turn to mine the next rock, there are 3 game ticks (about 1.8 seconds) between the two ores appearing in your inventory, unless you fail to mine the second rock. In cases where you walk one square or run two squares to mine the next rock, there are 5 game ticks (about 3.0 seconds) between the two ores appearing in your inventory, unless you fail to mine the second rock.

The fastest possible round time for mining three iron rocks in the crescent or triangle formation is 11 game ticks (about 6.7 seconds). It is not 9 ticks, or 3 per rock, because the rocks do not spawn fast enough to permit continuous mining, even on a full world. Note that this fastest round time can be achieved while dropping all 3 (or more) ores every round, using the drop method described above.

The maximum experience per hour for powermining iron, one-hitting it every time (a.k.a over about level 60 mining), getting 7.3 seconds per round, and getting 10% more ores because of Varrock Armor, is thus (3600 / 6.7)(35 * 1.1 * 3) 62k experience per hour. In practice, people obtain 55k to 60k experience per hour, or even less if they are not able to do the fast drop method correctly. Commonly, people who do not know how to use the fast drop method, or are not able to, gain 40k to 50k experience per hour with iron.

The fast drop method can of course also be used for granite or granite and sandstone too. The fastest possible round time for mining a row of 3 granite is 15 game ticks, or about 9.1 seconds. The fastest possible round time for mining 2 granite and 2 sandstone is 16 game ticks, or about 9.7 seconds. However, it is possible to fail to mine either type of rock even at 99 mining, so it is impossible to perform every single round at this minimum time.

Mining three granite in a row maxes at about 60k experience per hour at 99 mining plus lava titan and using the fastest drop method and Varrock armor. Commonly people only get about 50k experience per hour because of errors or not using the fast drop method. People with lower mining levels may only get 40k.

Mining two granite and two sandstone maxes at about 75k experience per hour at 99 mining plus lava titan and using the fastest drop method and Varrock armor. Commonly people only get about 60k experience per hour because of errors or not using the fast drop method. People with lower mining levels may only get 50k.