Iron ore

Iron ore is unrefined iron. A player with a Mining level of 15 or higher can mine iron ore from rocks found at various mines, granting 35 Mining experience for each ore mined. A player with 15 or more Smithing can smelt iron ore into an iron bar by using it on a furnace, granting 12.5 Smithing experience, although there is a 50% chance that it will be too impure to smelt unless a player is wearing a Ring of Forging. A player with 30 or more Smithing can smelt iron ore into a steel bar by using it on a furnace along with 2 coal, granting 17.5 Smithing experience.

Iron is the most popular ore that free-to-players power mine for experience. This is partly because iron is almost as abundant as copper. Using a rune pickaxe, a player can extract the iron ore from the rock in one strike, while mining copper, tin, or clay takes two or three strikes.