Coal

Coal is a type of ore that can be obtained through Mining coal rocks in various places around RuneScape. It is one of the most important mined materials in RuneScape.

Coal can be mined with a pickaxe by players with a Mining level of 30 or higher, granting 50 Mining experience. You can, however, mine it at a faster rate the higher your Mining level. After being mined, a coal rock takes an average of 42 seconds to respawn. Coal is needed to make steel, mithril, adamantite, and runite bars. It can also be used to make elemental bars.

27 coals can be stored into one inventory space by using a Coal bag, obtained from Dungeoneering.

Free to Play
The Dwarven Mine is one of the most popular ways of obtaining coal among free players, mainly due to its proximity to the Falador East Bank, though players with combat levels less than 65 may be attacked by level 32 King Scorpions. Players with at least level 15 Dungeoneering may also enter the Dwarven Mine resource dungeon through the Dwarven Mines where there are 13 coal rocks and a bank deposit box. The Mining Guild is a good way to obtain coal for those with a Mining level of 60 or more, though it will occasionally get crowded. This turns many people to the Southern Wilderness Mining Site or the Bandit Camp Mining Site, despite the aggressive monsters and the possibility of facing Pkers. For those that prefer high-level monsters to Pkers, Crandor has many coal rocks, though it is far from a F2P bank. (Members can use the TzHaar bank.) The West Lumbridge Swamp Mining Site is popular, though it is often crowded and not suggested for lower-level players. One of the least used mining spots is the one in the Edgeville Dungeon because players with combat levels less than 51 may experience difficulties due to the level 25 Skeletons there. Also, watch out for the Hobgoblins, which are level 28 and level 42. This mining site has 6 coal rocks.

A convenient spot for mining coal is the Al-Kharid Mine, where players may choose to deposit their ore through Fadli in the Duel Arena or the Al-Kharid bank.

Members
Members have more options when it comes to mining coal. They can use the Keldagrim North-East Mine which, despite its distance from a bank, can be used effectively due to a general lack of players.

One way of mining coal for members is just west of Falador, across the agility shortcut. If you have level 5 Agility, you can mine the two coal rocks there and zip back to the bank over the wall many times. Due to only two coal rocks being available, it is recommended to switch worlds if there is already a miner on one of the rocks.

The Coal Trucks in Kandarin may be a good solution for members without the required mining level for the Guild, since they can mine and store 120 coal (up to 200 while wearing Seers' headband 4) in the trucks at the mine, then retrieve it from the trucks by Seers' Village. This allows players four and a quarter full loads of coal in one trip, or five and a quarter full loads if they carry one load with them. Low-level players may find it difficult to mine here, however, as the level 27 giant bats are aggressive.

If members have completed the The Grand Tree quest, the Grand Tree mine can be very useful for mining coal (11 coal rocks) as it is usually empty and is very close to the bank in the second floor of the Grand Tree.

Another easy way (for characters unafraid of grizzly bears) to get coal is to go to the small mine between East Ardougne and the Legends' Guild, which has 12 coal rocks and is usually abandoned. The bank in the southern part of East Ardougne is also a very short walk away.

Coal can also be obtained by having the subjects of Miscellania gather it for you. In order to gain the Coal players must put a number of coins in the coffers and set the subjects so that they will be mining. They will automatically mine coal and a few gems.

At level 77 players can mine concentrated coal deposits in the Living Rock Caverns. At high levels, this is a very fast method of obtaining coal, as you can mine more than one coal at once, and coal rocks contain a large number of coal rather than just one. A bank deposit is also very close to the coal rocks. However, this method requires a high combat level, because of the semi-aggressive level 120-200 (with Ranged attacks) monsters which inhabit the dungeon.

If a player has 15 dungeoneering, they can get into the Dwarven Mine Hidden Mines, which has 13 coal rocks and a nearby bank deposit box.

Another good way for members who have the Ardougne Cloak and a Ring of Kinship (Dungeoneering ring), is to teleport to the monastery south of Ardougne and walk just outside. There are a few coal and iron rocks there. To bank, the player can teleport to the Dungeoneering bank, then teleport back to the monastery. A plus side to this method is that all teleport items can be worn. There is rarely competition at these rocks.

Value
Coal is usually not mined for money in member worlds, since mining pure essence is faster and lies within a similar cost range with coal. The market price of coal was previously stable at around 165 coins each but rose gradually to over 300 coins in the middle of 2010. Since then, its price has declined slightly to about 250 coins. After the trade limit removing in the 1st February of 2011, the price briefly fell to about 160 coins. However, due to an increasing amount of bots and the fact that the speed of gathering ores is largely dependent on the amount of players fighting over ore rocks, the competition over rocks caused the bots to decrease mining efficiency among themselves and legitimate players, causing the price to raise dramatically. It's currently at coins. Players may prefer to mine iron ore instead of coal, because it's much faster, making up for the price difference.

Making money
Coal is a great way to make money because of its high demand at the Grand Exchange. Unfortunately, coal is always under competition from other miners and can be guarded by monsters such as hobgoblins at the Hobgoblin Mine.
 * Miners can mine coal from a large quantity of coal rocks in the Mining Guild, which requires level 60 Mining to enter (59 with Dwarven stout; 58 with mature Dwarven stout).
 * The new resource dungeon in the dwarven mine includes 13 coal rock and a deposit box, but requires level 15 dungeoneering.

Respawn rate
Coal, like all other mined rocks, respawns at a rate directly proportional to the number of people in the rock's RuneScape world. If the world is empty, the ore respawns in 1 minute; if it is full (with 2000 players), it respawns in 30 seconds. Thus the respawn rate of coal is
 * $$60-\frac{3x}{200}$$ seconds,

where x is the number of players in the world.

A table of respawn rates is given below.

Trivia

 * In real life coal is used in the furnace as a heat source. Coal is not a part of the refined metal. Jagex's justification for requiring coal may be that it would be used to introduce carbon into the metal, thereby making it stronger. (Steel, by definition, has carbon in it. During the late medieval period Runescape is very loosely based on, steel was generally made with charcoal from wood, but modern steelmaking does in fact use a purified product of coal. Whether mithril, adamant, and runite benefit from equivalent processing would be difficult to determine from the real world.) Coal could be used to fire the furnace and further remove impurities. However, during In Aid of the Myreque, when players need to fix Burgh de Rott, players are asked to fix the town furnace. The player first fixes the furnace, and then place coal inside it and lights it with a tinderbox, implying that all of Runescape's furnaces are run by coal. It could also be concluded that since the furnaces run on coal, that the stronger the metal, the more heat it requires to smelt into a pure bar.
 * In the game, mining coal gives a higher chance of receiving gems than other mining spots. In real life it is the same, as coal beds can usually supply the needed pressure and carbon for gems to form.
 * Another way to obtain coal is to explore for treasure using dwarven squads during a Mobilising Armies round. You can also get it as a spoil of war.
 * Some people might call this an ore but coal is not an ore. An ore would require extraction to obtain the element from, whereas coal is found in its usable form.
 * As a joke around Christmas time, some players give coal to other players saying it's because they have been very naughty this year, e.g. killing innocent guards, picking people's pockets, etc. This was turned on its head during the 2009 Christmas event, where the naughty NPC Tiny Thom was delighted to have been given a lump of coal due to its market value.
 * Coal rocks in the Keldagrim North-East Mine have not been updated, and are completely black, rather than brown or grey with black veins.
 * It's possible for two players to receive coal if they are mining it at the same time.
 * An ironic part of coal is that when you examine it, it says, "Hm, a non-renewable energy source!" while at the same time, coal respawns fast as described above.