Pay-to-play Mining training

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

Varrock Armour
The members-only Varrock armour 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 Armour 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 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 the Piscatoris mine. Another good area is the Dorge'shuun Mines after the Lost Tribe quest. You can mine iron ore then sell it to Mistag for 13 gp per ore. This is especially quick because selling the ores is a 3 box dialogue. Remember to bring a Bullseye lantern, Mining helmet or seers' headband 1.

Levels 80-99
Mining Concentrated gold rocks are commonly believed to be the fastest Mining experience at high Mining levels.

The 4 Concentrated gold rocks are located in the Living Rock Caverns. Here one does not have to switch from rock to rock often, as one almost always gains multiple ores from the rock, making it a lot less click intensive than previously, and removing the need for moving between rocks for xp. It is highly recommended to wear varrock armour 2 or 3, as this will increase the rate at which you gain multiple ores vastly. with the use of the varrock armour, 3 gold ores may be given upon the same hit.

Speeds vary from about 40k xp an hour at level 80 mining without the use of a familiar (using the dragon pickaxe), up to approximately 60k-65k xp an hour using a lava titan to boost xp, and a dragon pickaxe at high levels.

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 places such as below the Piscatoris Fishing Colony where there are 3 Iron rocks placed in a triangular fashion with a space in the middle for a character to stand in, it is possible to mine a rock, then mine another rock, then drop the first ore IMMEDIATELY after mining that rock, then mine the next rock and drop another ore and so on. This method is actually faster than dropping 3 ores after three rocks because your inventory can always be empty while also waiting for iron to spawn. This method requires some bit of focus however. It has been shown that people can get 60k+ exp an hour fully focused on utilizing this method. However, many people who take short breaks get around 53-55k hour taking a minute break every now and then, without extreme focus.

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 6.7 seconds per round, and getting 10% more ores because of Varrock Armour, 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 armour. 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 armour. 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.

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, available in many mines, such as the one south-east of Varrock. It does not really matter if the ores are dropped or kept.

Levels 15-40
Mining iron ore 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 175k 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.

You could also use the mine carts to go from the Grand Exchange to Keldagrim and then back to Ice Mountain (Dwarf Mines) and mine a inventory of iron, then go back to Keldagrim and to the Grand Exchange or on the right world the Blast Furnace.

Levels 40-85
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. Alternatively, you can complete the Between a Rock... quest and mine in the Arzinian Mine. There are 146 gold rocks and a nearby ferryman who will take your gold ores to the bank, but this is a slightly slower place to mine gold than the Brimhaven north-western mine, although the Arzinian Mine does not require any Construction level. After the quest Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf was added, a new route between the bank and the gold mine has been added. If you use the building where you kill the dwarf cannoner early on in the quest you can bypass using the boatman and get to the bank fairly quickly. Also, if a player has 40 Crafting and has completed Enlightened Journey, they may use the Crafting Guild mine, using rings of duelling to bank at Castlewars, while using the balloon to travel to the crafting guild and back.

Levels 77/80-99
The Living Rock Caverns, located under the Dwarven Mines of Asgarnia, offer a new rock type: mineral deposits. These deposits do not run out of ore in the usual sense, but rather collapse at random times. One can continually mine from the deposits until a full inventory or collapse. The deposits may also produce an extra ore while mining. Be aware that the caverns are gaurded by Living rock protector (lvl 120, melee) and Living rock striker (lvl 140, range). Both will only attack you if you stand directly in front of them or at their sides. Living rock patriarch (lvl 200, melee) spawn randomly and should not be a problem. The caverns have both coal (lvl 77 req) and gold (lvl 80 req) deposits, and there is a bank deposit in the centre of the cave.

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 be 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.

As of the release of the Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf quest, there are two additional safe rune rocks to be had in the North Keldagrim mining area, less than a 5 second run from the Keldagrim bank. The ore-content of these rocks can be seen at a glance since, when empty, they turn a light tan colour rather than simply losing the pale blue vein.