Free-to-play Mining training

Introduction
This guide describes the most effective free-to-play methods to train the Mining skill. The experience rate estimates in this guide assume that the best possible pickaxe is being used for the stated Mining level and do not incorporate the use of any experience boosting items or bonus experience. They also assume that players do not bank the ores that they obtain. Banking ores decreases the amount of experience players can gain per hour and, as most ores are not very valuable, is usually not worth the time taken from Mining training. Players using the Evolution of Combat mode can drop ores by adding the ore to their action bar and pressing the associated keybind to drop the ore. As opposed to dropping items directly from the inventory using their right-click drop option, dropping ore via the action bar does not interrupt mining.

Mining is a gathering skill which typically involves collecting ores from different types of ore rock; ore rocks are often found in groups at mining sites. Players can also occasionally obtain uncut sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds while mining. A pickaxe is required when mining. Levelling up the Mining skill increases the rate at which players gain resources and experience while mining. As players level up they are also able to use better pickaxes. To gain the best experience rates possible, players are strongly recommended to use the highest level pickaxe available to them.

Pickaxes
In addition to Mining level requirements, pickaxes require certain Attack levels to be wielded. However players are able to use a pickaxe without equipping it, as pickaxes held in the inventory or tool belt are automatically used to mine. Once a pickaxe is added to the tool belt it cannot be removed, but players can add a higher level pickaxe to their tool belt if the pickaxe currently stored in the tool belt is inferior to the one being added. Players can add pickaxes which they do not currently have a high enough Mining level to use to their tool belt. If the pickaxe stored in a player's tool belt requires a higher Mining level to use than the player currently possesses, the pickaxe will function as the best available pickaxe at the player's current Mining level.

Urns
Urns can be used to gain additional Mining experience while training. When held in the inventory, urns are filled as the player mines ore. Only base experience gains counts towards filling the urn. Full urns can be teleported away to receive additional experience, equivalent to 20% of the Mining experience gained while filling the urn. Only one urn is filled at a time, though players may own up to a total of 10 full urns. If a player owns 10 full mining urns they must teleport at least 1 away before they can fill more urns. Urns are only tradeable in their (nr), non-runed, forms. In order to use a mining urn the player must add an earth rune to it; this makes the urn untradeable.

Golem outfits
Parts of golem outfits could be won as a prize from Treasure Hunter between the 19 June and 23 June 2014. The sapphire golem outfit, emerald golem outfit and ruby golem outfit consist of head slot, body slot, leg slot, hand slot and feet slot items. When wearing a complete version of any of these three outfits, the player's chance of successfully mining a resource is increased by 5%.

Players who won all pieces of the sapphire golem outfit, emerald golem outfit, and ruby golem outfit could combine these outfits' components to form the magic golem outfit. When wearing a complete magic golem outfit, the player's chance of successfully mining a resource is increased by 7% (as opposed to 5% with the other golem outfits).

Summary
See here to calculate how many ores will be obtained during training.

Levels 1-15: copper and tin
At level 1 Mining players should begin training by mining copper and/or tin ore rocks. Either type of ore give the same amount of Mining experience per ore mined and are obtained at the same rate while mining. Players can gain around 6,800 experience an hour mining copper and/or tin ore. However as only 2,411 experience is required to reach level 15, it should take players with no previous experience of the skill about 20 minutes to reach level 15. Copper and tin ore rocks can be mined at the Lumbridge Swamp training mining site and the south-east Varrock mining site.

Levels 15-99+: iron
At level 15 Mining players should start mining iron ore rocks. This gives between 15,000 experience an hour, at level 15 Mining, and 27,000 experience an hour, at level 99 Mining.

The best place to mine iron ore is in the southern part of the Dwarven Mine, where 3 iron ore rocks are found in close proximity to one another. Players with level 15 Dungeoneering can enter the nearby resource dungeon to access a bank deposit box if they wish to bank their iron ore. The Dwarven Mine contains king scorpions which are aggressive to players with a combat level of 77 or lower. It is possible to avoid being attacked by these creatures by trapping them behind rocks in the area.
 * Dwarven Mine, Falador

The second best place to mine iron ore is the mines west of Falador (see pic). No monsters patrol this area and there are no level requirements. The nearby clan chest can be used as a bank to store ores. Players can use the Port Sarim lodestone and walk north-west to the mines.
 * Falador Mines

Alternative mining sites at which players can mine iron include the Al Kharid mining site and Rimmington mining site. Players will receive less mining experience an hour if mining at one of these locations, as the iron ore rocks are not located close to one another players will have to spend longer moving between ore rocks, decreasing the amount of time that can be spent mining.
 * Al Kharid & Rimmington

As iron ore is frequently successfully obtained, players may wish to mine iron ore on a highly populated world. The rate at which ore rocks replenish with ore increases according to the number of players present on a world. Players will spend less time waiting for ore to replenish if they are on a highly populated world.
 * Choosing a world