Iron ore

Iron ore is unrefined iron. A player with a Mining level of 15 or higher can mine iron ore from iron ore rocks found in various mines, granting 35 Mining experience for each ore mined. It takes 5 seconds for each ore to respawn within an iron rock.

Lower level players often train Mining by mining iron ore because of the moderate experience, low respawn time, and relatively low required level to mine and smith. If done fast, mining and dropping iron ores can result in 45,000 experience per hour and above which is one of the fastest methods to train until 45 Mining for granite mining.

The Ardougne Monastery is the best place to mine iron for banking. There are 6 rocks in total, all very close to each other. A player can teleport here quickly with at least an Ardougne Cloak 1 which offers infinite teleports here, and then either run the distance to the Ardougne south-bank or teleport to a bank using a jewelry teleport method, and finally use the Cloak teleport once again to return.

Dorgesh-Kaan mine is also a good place to mine iron in case a person wishes to bank the ores. This requires doing the first subquest of Recipe for Disaster for the bank chest in Lumbridge Castle cellar and The Lost Tribe to gain access to the mine. A light source is needed so you can only mine 27 pieces of iron per trip, unless you have a Mining helmet with 65 Firemaking. Alternatively, the Fight Arena mine fares well also since the player can use Yanille bank, which is a relatively short distance south.

Another spot is just west of Falador at the West Falador mine, across the Agility shortcut. If players have level 5 Agility, they can mine the iron rocks there and zip back to the bank over the wall many times. It is recommended to switch worlds if there is already a miner on the rocks.

Another spot is just south-east of Varrock at the south-east Varrock mine.

Another easy way to get iron is to go to the small mine between East Ardougne and the Legends' Guild, which contains three iron rocks close together. The bank in the southern part of East Ardougne is also a very short walk away. There are a number of level 21 grizzly bears in the area who will attack players below 43 Combat.

Similar in setup to the Legends' Guild mine is the Piscatoris mine as it also has three iron rocks close together. After completion of Swan Song, players can bank their iron at the Piscatoris Fishing Colony.

Smelting
Players with 15 or higher Smithing can smelt iron ore into an iron bar by using it on a furnace, granting 12.5 Smithing experience, although there is only a 50% chance that you will be able to get a bar out of it unless smelted while the player is wearing a ring of forging, is using the Superheat Item spell from a normal spellbook, or using the Blast Furnace, in which case the chance will be 100%. Note:  The chance of successfully smelting a bar of iron unaided is 50% regardless of level. A player can only smelt 140 iron ores while wearing a ring of forging before it melts; however, the cost of the ring is easily offset by the increased experience and profit from successful smelts.

Trading
Iron ore are usually sold for 100-150 coins. As they are nearly effortless to mine, it's easy to purchase large amounts of them from other players. The Ore Seller, run by Ordan in Keldagrim, sells iron ore and can found downstairs in the Blast Furnace factory in the eastern side of Keldagrim. As with most ores in Ordan's stock, it is sold for much lower than its GE price, and tends to be out of stock except on skill total worlds.

Dropping monsters
You can get 150 iron ores with a 2.75% chance from the Crystal chest using a Crystal key.

They are also a random item given from thieving from H.A.M Members.