Mining



Mining is a skill that allows players to extract ores, gems, rune essence and other resources from rocks in mines throughout RuneScape. Mined ores can be smelted at a furnace, turning them into bars that can be made into metal objects using the Smithing skill, the Construction skill or the Crafting skill. On the map, mines and mining sites are identified with a regular pickaxe, and Mining shops are identified with a gold pickaxe icon.

History
Mining was one of the skills available at RuneScape's launch on 4 January 2001. In the beginning, there was only one kind of pickaxe, just called Pickaxe  which had to be used manually on the rock. It was not until 2003 that metal pickaxes were added to the game. With the large graphical update in 2004, random events were added. These included the Rock Golem, pickaxe heads falling off, and broken pickaxes. In 2006 players began to mine granite in the Desert Quarry, some of the fastest Mining experience in the game. In late 2009, the long-awaited dragon pickaxe was released as a drop from chaos dwogres, chaos dwarf hand cannoneer, and chaos dwarves (only on battlefield), all of which are located on the Chaos Dwarf Battlefield.

How to mine
To mine, players need a pickaxe (the better the pickaxe and Mining level the quicker it is to mine the ores) that they have the required Mining level to mine with. Players should then choose where to mine, taking into consideration the proximity to a bank, and what ores are available. Players only need to left-click once on any rock containing ore to mine it (provided they have the level needed for that ore type). The obtained ores, gems, and essence can then be sold for profit, or used by the player for the Smithing, Crafting and Runecrafting skills.

Players used to be able to discover which ore was in a rock by right-clicking and selecting Prospect (with or without a pickaxe) which would require them to wait a few seconds before learning which ore the rock contained. However, most types of ores can now be determined by simply examining the rock. Experienced miners did not need to prospect every rock, as they recognised the colour of the rock and knew the ore it contained. However, an update made it so that simply hovering one's cursor over the rock would tell the player what ore was to be found in it, in the upper-left corner (though some rocks, like certain mineral veins, still have the "Prospect" option).

Pickaxes
The pickaxes used in mining can be equipped like a weapon, giving players one more space in their inventory. A player's Mining level determines the type of pickaxe they can mine with, while their Attack level determines whether they can wield it. As with all metal weapons, the better the pickaxe, the more effective it is as a tool and as a weapon. Pickaxes are sold by Nurmof in the Dwarven Mine, Tati in Keldagrim, Bob in Lumbridge (bronze only), or at the Grand Exchange. Furthermore, pickaxes can be forged at the appropriate Smithing level for members who have completed the Perils of Ice Mountain quest. Pickaxes may also be stored in the tool belt to save inventory space.

* Attack is only required to wield, not mine. The pickaxe may be wielded, placed in the inventory, or placed in the toolbelt to mine.

Mineable items
Ores are obtained from the different rocks that are found in mines. On the minimap, mines are labelled with a grey pickaxe. The colour of a rock's vein corresponds to the ore's colour, so a black vein will yield coal, a dark blue vein will yield mithril ore, and so forth. Players used to be able to identify which kind of ore a rock is composed of via prospecting. However, due to an update, players can now examine the rock to find the ore type and the "prospect" option has been removed.

When a player clicks on a rock, they will hit it with their pickaxe and attempt to extract the ore. The higher level the rock (e.g., adamantite and runite), the longer the mining procedure will take, requiring the player to have some degree of patience.

After the ore has been mined, the rock will no longer have a visible vein of colour for a while. Eventually, another ore will respawn and the rock will regain its vein of colour. Players can only mine a rock when ore is available. Ore respawn times differ with the level requirement of the rock and the amount of people on the server (e.g., runite rocks can take up to 25 minutes to respawn, while iron rocks take about 10 seconds). Rune essence is an exception to this as there is no respawn time and players can mine continuously.

Players can continuously mine multiple pieces of coal and gold ore in the Living Rock Caverns until the concentrated coal/gold rock collapses. Sometimes, players will mine two ores at once, gaining experience for both ores. While wearing Varrock armour, players may find that they can mine three ores at once in the cavern. Mining coal in the Living Rock Caverns requires level 77 Mining, while mining gold there requires level 80 Mining. Beware of aggressive, ranged/melee level 132 creatures that protect the rocks. Using world 84 can protect individuals from the rock creatures as there is a high volume of players in this world.

Table of mines
See mines and mining sites for a more detailed listing of mines.

Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars are a members-only Distraction and Diversion. They can be found via a telescope in a player-owned house. They fall in waves every 2 hours on all members worlds and will land around 2–15 minutes after each other. The stars can be from size 1 (10 Mining required) up to size 9 (90 Mining required). Bigger stars give more stardust in total, but are much harder to mine. There are nine areas in RuneScape where shooting stars will land at. You can learn more about the specific locations in the Distractions and Diversions guide. If you reach your limit of 200 stardust, you can still carry on mining the star for Mining experience. Mining stars give players stardust. 200 stardust may be exchanged for:

For an exact total of 0 coins.
 * 152 cosmic runes
 * 52 astral runes
 * 20 noted gold ores
 * 50,002 coins
 * Chance to receive double ores when mining for a limited amount of time.

There are clans that specialise in finding shooting stars. The Distractions and Diversions section of the official RuneScape forums is home to several of these clans.

Wilderness Warbands
Wilderness Warbands is a members-only Distraction and Diversion where the player or a group of players attempt to loot supplies and trade it in for experience. One of the possible loots are Mining supplies. Players can loot up to a maximum of 25 supplies per camp or 75 supplies daily. Turning the supplies to Quercus will give players experience based on how many supplies they have looted and what their current level is.

Gems
When mining your player may find a gem in the rock. A player's chances of finding gems are increased when wearing an charged amulet of glory or ring of wealth. If wearing both, the effects double. There also seems to be a positive correlation between a player's Mining level and the frequency of gems they receive while mining. In other words, the higher levelled the ore, the more likely it is to receive gems while mining it. There is also an extremely small chance of finding more than one gem in a rock (this happens quite often when mining a Shooting Star). If your inventory is full you are still able to find gems, however the gem will be dropped and you will receive the message "You do not have enough space in your inventory, so you drop the gem on the floor.".

Gems that can be found in rocks are uncut sapphires, uncut emeralds, uncut rubies and uncut diamonds. If you use a (superior) gem-finding scrimshaw you also have the chance to receive uncut dragonstones and uncut onyxes from a rock. The scrimshaw will also increase the diamonds found, with higher-levelled rocks increasing the chance for higher gems.

Note: Gems cannot be found while mining mineral deposits.

Rock Golem (discontinued)
While mining, a Rock Golem could appear and begin attacking the player.

The combat level of the golem depended on the player's combat level, and it would always be higher than the player's. The Rock Golem's combat level varied from level 14 to 159. Players may have either attempted to kill it, or run away. The Rock Golem also had a ranged attack. If a player killed the golem, it would drop ores, dwarven stouts, pickaxes, uncut gems, or nothing.

Rock Golems were especially vulnerable to pickaxes.

Since the random event update in 25 February 2009, Rock Golems cannot be found with a random event - though, they are in the enchanted valley with the rest of the discontinued random creatures.

Pickaxe head (discontinued)
While mining, the player's pickaxe head may have flown off. The head landed somewhere nearby, usually 3 to 10 squares away. When this occured, the player had to find the pickaxe head quickly before it disappeared or before someone else saw and grabbed it (and some would try to extort money from the player to return the pickaxe head). Once retrieved, the player could use the pickaxe head on the handle to put the pickaxe back together.

Also from the update of 25 February 2009, this random event has been discontinued. Any pickaxe heads in a player's inventory or bank were transformed back into a full pickaxe. Handles were removed from the game.

Animation when mining
It should be noted that when mining a player's animation will never be stopped unless they log out, die, or left-click somewhere else or eat/drink anything or drop something. So, with this in mind, players could, in theory, mine continuously until the ore runs out. One example of this is when players are attacked, their mining animation may be delayed or seem as if it has been stopped, but in reality they are actually still mining.

Players could also transfer to another ore if they feel that the ore they are mining is taking too long. The animation will transfer and you might find mining faster this way.

Power mining
Also known as drop mining, this is where a player fills their inventory with ores, drops them all, and repeats. While this method of mining allows players to raise their Mining level quickly, dropping a whole inventory of ores can take some time. Also, by using this method, a player would be missing out on Smithing experience or money from selling the ore. Players can place the ore that requires dropping onto their action bar, and by pressing and then holding the key required to 'use' the entire inventory of ore. This drops the ore, so you can quickly, and efficiently drop ores in a fraction of the time. Another method of power mining is to drop an ore just as another ore is mined, allowing players to mine while dropping ores at nearly the same speed as mining without dropping ores. Some mining spots for:
 * Free-to-play -- Power mining iron is a popular way to quickly raise levels in free-to-play, although it is not an ideal thing to do, now that iron is at such a high price. Good locations include the Bandit Camp mining site (located in levels 29-31 Wilderness) and the Al Kharid mining site. Other good locations are in the Rimmington mining site, as this area is usually deserted. Mining and dropping iron can lead to around 20,000 exp an hour. Many high level players prefer to mine iron in the Dwarven Mine and bank it in the bank booth in the nearby dungeon (requires 15 Dungeoneering).
 * Members- The Granite Quarry in the Kharidian Desert is a useful place to power mine. This requires the player to carry waterskins or an enchanted water tiara to avoid the effects of the desert heat, but granite provides better experience than iron. You can also cast the Lunar spell Humidify to keep your water skins filled (another less efficient method is, if you have completed Enakhra's Lament, you can run inside of the temple and use the fountain that you melted during the quest). You can get up to 50,000 experience an hour doing granite, although most players are only able to get around 40,000 per hour. If a player chooses to mine iron instead, the mine south of Piscatoris Fishing Colony is another good place to power mine iron. The Lava Flow Mine (after King of the Dwarves) is another way of power training that does not require you to drop ores. This method gives an average of around 50,000 experience per hour and does not require much attention compared to mining ores, and has side rewards including the golden mining suit. The Living Rock Caverns provides a large sum of experience mining coal/gold veins earning you 45,000-85,000 experience per hour. Living rock creatures in the area make this area a bit risky.


 * In Runescape Classic your extra ores auto drop.

Ore running
This is a far less popular type of power mining. The main difference is that players do not drop all of their precious ores. All you need is a friend who is willing to run back and forth from the bank to your mining spot for payment or profit of ores. When you have a full inventory of iron ore (F2P), granite (P2P), or concentrated coal rocks/concentrated gold rocks (P2P), you trade them to your runner before mining another full load of ores. Your runner will then take the ores to the bank and withdraw them as notes before bringing them back to you for payment or a percentage of the ores, usually half. This is still a good form of power mining that allows you to keep some of your ores and runners can also profit from your ability to mine quickly. The reason this is so unpopular is that it is usually very easy for a runner to find a power miner who is dropping or willing to give all of their ores for free.

Magic mining (or mining bars)
This term refers to the use of the Superheat Item spell, available to players with level 43 or higher Magic. Using this technique allows players to emerge from a mine with an inventory full of bars instead of ores, at the cost of one nature rune per bar (with a fire staff equipped). Players should enter the mine with an equipped staff of fire, a stack of nature runes, and a pickaxe in their inventory. After mining the appropriate ore and coal, the player casts the spell, which frees up extra inventory space so the process can continue. This allows players to spend far longer in a mine before returning to a bank, and streamlines the smelting process. Using this technique to create mithril bars in the Mining Guild is one of the most effective ways to gain Mining and Smithing experience in the game. When casting Superheat Item on an iron ore there is no chance of failure. Using the explorer's ring's superheat item will save inventory space. Another useful item that is great for this method would be a Coal Bag gained through the Dungeoneering skill.

Busy world versus empty world
The rate that ore respawn for each rock has a linear relationship with the number of players logged in that world. This means that the same rock will respawn quicker in a busy world, like World 1 or World 2, than it would in a world with fewer players, such as World 125. This is especially important to consider when power mining (see above).

For general mining, it is slightly more advisable that players go to a quieter trading world such as World 125. Although it has a slower rate of rock respawn, there are much fewer players in the world and, therefore, less competition for the rocks. As for selling the ores, the Grand Exchange allows the player to make offers with players in all servers. The only disadvantage, as mentioned before, is the ore respawn rate plus the disadvantage of the traditional method of trading as there would be very few people wishing to purchase your ore.

Wear light items
Players are strongly recommended to wear few items or nothing at all other than their pickaxe. Members are advised to wear the boots of lightness, obtained in the Temple of Ikov dungeon (no quests required), so that their weight is lower, therefore allowing them to run for longer periods of time. Also, wearing the spotted cape or spottier cape from the Hunter Skill can be very useful, as well as penance gloves from the Barbarian Assault activity and the agile legs and the agile top from the Agility skill. Wearing armour adds even more weight, which rapidly decreases run energy. However when you are mining in the Living Rock Caverns it might be better to wear defensive armour as the Living Rock creatures are aggressive towards you and can kill you.

Wear Varrock armour and an amulet of glory
Among other benefits, Varrock armour (obtained from completing the different levels of difficulty of the Varrock Tasks) offers a chance of obtaining two ores at the same time from one rock. The player will get experience for both ores. As Varrock armour is upgraded upon completing the tasks, this unique effect will be available for rocks up to adamantite. Wearing an amulet of glory or ring of wealth will also increase the chance of obtaining gems.

Switch worlds
For higher level ores such as adamantite or runite, it is faster to switch between servers for more ore rather than wait for the rocks to respawn. This is not needed for lower level ores.

Training

 * See Free-to-play Mining training and Pay-to-play Mining training for details.

Temporary boosts

 * Mining cape raises one level when cape is equipped, or when a player selects the 'boost' option that comes with the cape. However, 99 Mining is required.
 * Dwarven stout - Drinking this will raise a player's Mining and Smithing levels by 1 for a short time. Dwarven stouts can be bought in Falador one at a time, or members can buy them in bulk in Burthorpe. They are also a common drop from dwarves, and can be bought in several places in members areas, as well as brewed using the Cooking skill. There are several re-spawns in the dwarf tavern along the shortcut under White Wolf Mountain (you need to complete Fishing Contest to go there).
 * Mature dwarven stout - Members only. Drinking this will raise a player's Mining and Smithing by 2 levels for a short time. Players receive two mature dwarven stouts as a reward for completing the quest Forgettable Tale of a Drunken Dwarf, but they can also be brewed using the Cooking skill. This does not stack with ordinary dwarven stout.
 * A brown spicy stew can raise Mining temporarily by up to 5; however, it can also decrease it by up to 5.
 * Braindeath 'rum' raises Mining by one level and Strength by 3, but decreases some other stats.
 * Desert wyrms summoned with the Summoning skill will give the player's Mining an invisible boost of 1 level.
 * Void ravagers summoned with the Summoning skill will give the player's Mining a boost of 1 level + 1 invisible boost.
 * Obsidian golems summoned with the Summoning skill will give the player's Mining an invisible boost of 7 levels.
 * Lava titans summoned with the Summoning skill will give the player's Mining an invisible boost of 10 levels.
 * Star sprites from a Shooting Star will reward you with being able to mine 2 ores at once (25% chance), lasting for the amount of stardust you collected (200 stardust equals a 15-minute boost); it does work on runite.

'Green' cells are those which offer the highest bonuses obtainable for the item on that row. 'Pale Green' cells are those which offer the highest invisible boost for the item on that row. Invisible boosts are always mentioned in second.

Helpful items

 * [[File:Golden mining top.png]] Golden mining suit pieces increases Mining experience by 5% when you have the entire outfit set equipped. It gives 1% extra experience per item of the set worn.
 * [[File:Dragonstone ammy.png]] Amulet of glory (at least 1 charge) increases the chance of finding gems while mining.
 * [[File:Ring of wealth.png]] Ring of wealth (at least 1 charge) doubles the gems you receive.
 * [[File:Varrock armour 4.png]] Varrock armour gives you a chance of doubling the ore you receive, stacks with the effect of shooting stars.
 * [[File:Penance master horn.png]] Penance master horn gives a double experience bonus, but needs to be charged in the Barbarian Assault minigame.
 * [[File:Volatile clay pickaxe.png]] Sacred clay pickaxe gives a double experience bonus, but degrades after a certain amount of uses.
 * [[File:Coal bag.png]] Coal bag can hold up to 27 additional pieces of coal.
 * [[File:Gem bag.png]] Gem bag can hold up to 100 gems (sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds).
 * [[File:Quarrymaster.png]] Quarrymaster auras will increase the chance of receiving ores.
 * [[File:Gem-finding scrimshaw.png]] Gem-finding scrimshaw (Superior) will give a chance to receive more uncut diamonds from rocks and even chances for uncut dragonstones and uncut onyxes. Higher rocks will give a chance for better gems and a better chance for gems in general.
 * [[File:Rock-crushing scrimshaw.png]] Rock-crushing scrimshaw (Superior) will give a 15% chance to crush ore as you mine it giving 50% extra experience for that ore.
 * [[File:Mining ring.png]] Mining ring obtained from working in a Clan Citadel will give 50% bonus experience for a limited amount of experience.
 * [[File:Mining urn (full).png]] Mining urn (full) Mining urn. Gives experience once filled.

Special mining areas

 * Coal Trucks - The coal trucks are located west from Seers' Village and north from Ardougne. There are 18 coal rocks and handy carts for storing coal in. The carts can store 120 at a time and it is also recommended to take 28 coal when leaving as well. There is a quick way or a slow way to get to and from the coal trucks.
 * Quick Way: With 20 Agility go across the log that is on the east side of the coal trucks. The Camelot Teleport spell can also be used for quick access to the Seers' bank
 * Slow Way: To walk all the way around the lake, past the Fishing Guild, to Seers' Village.
 * Once in Seers' Village go north-west from Seers' Village bank and there are more coal trucks in the shed. Remove all the coal and bank, repeating the process until all the ore has been taken.

After completing the Seers' Village Tasks the coal trucks can hold up to a max of 196 coal before having to be emptied.

You can save a couple of seconds while banking using the skills necklace's Mining Guild teleport, which teleports you directly in front of the stairs leading down to the mining area.
 * Mining Guild - In the Mining Guild there are 37 coal and 5 mithril rocks. It is close to a bank (just climb the ladders to the west and head north). Level 60 Mining is required to enter (level 59 miners can achieve this by drinking a dwarven stout just before entering the guild). There is one especially efficient place to mine, in the south-east corner, where there are 6 coal in very close proximity. Mining mithril is not recommended in the guild unless there is no-one else at the rocks. An anvil is available outside of the guild in the north end of the mines. The anvil, in combination with the Superheat Item spell, allows the player to smith the ores they mine. The smithed items can be turned into coins with the High Level Alchemy spell or sold at the nearby shop avoiding trips to the bank.


 * Crafting Guild - The Crafting Guild is the best place in free play to mine gold, silver, and clay. 40 Crafting and a brown apron (or the crafting cape gained at level 99 Crafting) are required to enter. Members can easily teleport there by use of a skills necklace or the balloon transport system. Gold ore is very valuable and in high demand by members using the goldsmith gauntlets for quick Smithing experience, so free players hoping to make money mining would benefit greatly by training their Crafting level to 40.


 * Arzinian Mine - After completing the Between a Rock... quest, members can access the largest gold mine in the game, with 146 gold rocks. Players must talk to Dondakan while wearing a gold helmet in order to access it. To leave the mine, simply remove the helmet or log off and log in again. The mine is very far from a bank; however, a short ways away, there is a dwarf who will deliver Gold ore to the bank for you in exchange for a 20% cut of the profits, rounded up. The fee is halved if the player is wearing a ring of charos (a).


 * Shooting Star - A shooting star can be seen through a telescope in a player-owned house every two hours. Details will be given, such as the location of impact site and time remaining until impact. Once a shooting star has crashed onto Gielinor, a player may search it out and mine it. Mining the star will give the player stardust, which can be exchanged for some rewards from a star sprite at the middle of the star, after the star has been fully mined. The sprite will also give the player an ability to mine more than one ore per rock (for a limited amount of time). Only 200 stardust pieces can be mined from the star. After that, the player can continue to mine the star and get experience (amount of experience depends on the level of star, or the amount of outer shell of the star still intact). This can be helpful to assist people in breaking the star apart so they can get their reward. Also, a star sprite can only reward a player once per day. It is recommended that the player exchanges a full 200 stardust pieces, for a larger reward.


 * Living Rock Caverns - The living rock cavern has concentrated coal rocks and concentrated gold rocks, which can be mined for multiple amounts of ore, gaining fast amounts of experience, and with the nearby deposit box, you gain good amounts of money from it. You need 77 and 80 Mining for coal and gold respectively.
 * Dwarven Mine resource dungeon - Requires level 15 Dungeoneering to enter, but contains 3 silver rocks, 13 coal rocks and 6 mithril rocks, along with a bank deposit box. This mining location is by far the closest location to a bank/deposit box in RuneScape, and therefore it is a very favourable place to mine, especially in free to play servers.
 * Lava Flow Mine - After completing the King of the Dwarves quest, players unlock a new area to mine with a chance to receive the golden mining suit. There are a number of distractions at the mine which are pretty much just random events. To successfully achieve the best experience, you must make sure you are mining at the segment with a 50% lava flow which can be checked by clicking the gauges. No ore is produced here.

Trivia

 * On 3 July 2007, the mining animation was dramatically changed. The change initially irked some players, likely because they had become accustomed to the very steady pace and sound of the prior animation. Some players believe this "nerfed" mining as the animation seems longer thus apparently increasing the time a rock is hit before an ore is yielded.
 * Early in RS classic it was possible to mine gems from rocks, that you did not have the proper level to normally mine ore. This allowed a player to rapidly click on the rock and obtain gems without actually mining it. This exploit was swiftly fixed.
 * It is possible to obtain the ore from a rock a few seconds after someone else has mined the ore from the same rock.