Mining

Mining is a skill that allows players to obtain ores and gemstones from rocks. With ores, a player can then either smelt and smith them or sell them for a great profit. Mining is also one of the most popular skills in RuneScape as many players try to earn a profit from the skill. On the map, mining areas are identified with a regular pickaxe icon and the mining shop with a gold pickaxe  icon.

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Pickaxes
Pickaxes, or 'picks', are needed to mine rocks. They can be equipped as a weapon, giving players some more space in their inventory. However, pickaxes cannot be made using the Smithing skill. Pickaxes can either be bought from Nurmof in the dwarven mines or from other players. Nurmof's shop in the dwarven mines is labelled on the mini-map as a gold pickaxe.

A player's mining level determines the type of pickaxe they can mine with. The higher a level needed to use a pickaxe, the better it is than the ones below it. For example, a rune pickaxe will mine rocks faster than an adamant pickaxe.

The prices in the table below are from Nurmof's store when there is only one of that kind of pickaxe in stock. If a player breaks the pickaxe's head from a rock with smoke coming out of it, then they will have to bring their pickaxe to Nurmof and ask him to fix it, for a price.

Minable items
Ores are obtained from the different types of rocks. These rocks can be found in mines. On the mini-map, mines are labelled with a gray pickaxe. The colour of a rock corresponds to the ore's colour, so a black rock will yield coal ore, a blue rock will yield mithril ore, etc.

When players click on a rock, they will hit it with their pickaxe and try to get the ore out. The higher level rocks, such as mithril and adamant, take longer for players to mine an ore out of them, making the player require patience.

After the ore has been mined, the rock will turn gray for a while. Eventually another ore will respawn and the rock will regain its colour. Players can only mine a rock when ore is available. Ore respawn times differ with the difficulty of the rock. For example, rune rocks take over 20 minutes to respawn while iron rocks take about 3 seconds.

Free-to-play mines
All players have access to these mines.

Misthalin mines

 * Al-Kharid Mine
 * Barbarian Village Mine
 * East Varrock Mine
 * West Varrock Mine
 * Edgeville Dungeon Mine
 * Lumbridge Swamp South-East and South-West mine

Asgarnia mines

 * Asgarnian Ice Caves mine
 * Crafting Guild Mine
 * Dwarven Mine
 * Mining Guild
 * Rimmington Mine

Island mines

 * Crandor Mine
 * Karmaja Volcano Mine

Wilderness mines

 * Hobgoblin Mine
 * Steel Mine
 * Wilderness Rune Mine
 * Wilderness Skeleton Mine

Members mines
Only members can access these mines.

Asgarnia mines

 * Hero's Guild Mine

Others

 * Keldagrim mines
 * Fremminik mines
 * Coal Trucks
 * Gold & Silver in Tzhaar

Random events
Random events are events that happen at random times. They were introduced to stop autoers, or people who use a program to do their work. Some random events include NPCs wanting players to do a task for them and rewarding them if they are successful or a monster that will attack the player. In mining, there are quite a few random events.

Rock golem
While mining, a Rock Golem may appear and will begin attacking a player. The combat level of the golem depends on the player's combat level, but it will always be stronger. The Rock Golem's combat level varies from level 14 to 170. The player can either kill it or run away from it. If a player kills a Rock Golem, it can drop ores, stouts, pickaxes, uncut gems or nothing.

Exploding rock
When a player mines a rock, smoke or gas bubbles may emerge from it. If a player continues mining this rock as this is happening, the rock will explode, dealing minor damage to the player and destroying the head of their pickaxe. To repair it, for a price, players have to bring it to Nurmof, the dwarf who sells pickaxes in the Dwarven Mine or Bob in Lumbridge at the Axe Shop.

Lost pickaxe head
While mining, the player's pickaxe head might fly off. The head will land somewhere nearby, usually 3 to 10 squares away. When this happens, the player has to find the pickaxe head quickly before someone else sees it and grabs it - who might attempt to extort it from them. When the player has found the pickaxe head, they can use it with their handle to put the pickaxe back together.

Tips
Here are some tips to help a player mine.

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. For P2P Power mining is particularly useful at the Granite Quarry in the Al Kharid desert. This requires starting the quest Enakhra's Lament.

To save time while using this method, a player can hire runners who take the ore to their bank as payment for running, saving time for the miner.

Prime F2P power mining spots for iron include the Hobgoblin Mine (located in 29-31 wilderness) and the Al-Kharid Mine.

Busy World VS Empty World
The rate of ore respawn for each rock is proportional to 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 quieter world such as World 127. This is especially important to consider when Power mining (see above).

For general mining, it is slightly more advisable that players go to a busy trading world such as World 1. Although it has many more people logged in, most are concentrated around trading places such as banks or stores. The number of people mining in that world is likely to be equal to a quieter world, but the rocks will respawn quicker. This is advantageous to miners as they can gather rocks faster. This is especially true in peak times when there are more than 200,000 players logged into RuneScape.

Wield the pickaxe
Players are strongly recommended to wield their pickaxe. This way, they'll have more inventory space to allow them to carry more ores. To wield picks players must have the appropriate Attack level, as the pickaxe is considered a weapon. Bronze         -    1 Iron           -    1 Steel          -    5 Mithril        -    20 Adamant        -    30 Rune           -    40

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, so that their weight is lower. 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 mini-game. Wearing fewer items allows a player to run longer. If they are wearing armour, then their weight would be quite large, making them lose a large amount of energy in a short amount of time.

Wilderness mine tips
Having a high-level Defence and wearing stronger armour gives players a much stronger defence against pkers that attempt to try their luck for some runite/adamantite/etc. ores. Leather/Dragonhide armour also offers fairly good protection against both magic and meleers. Players could either only bring their pickaxe to the wilderness, or bring full leather, a wooden shield or an anti-dragon shield, and an amulet of defence. Fortunately, if a player dies with all these items, they'll keep their pickaxe, the amulet, and the leather body or an ore, depending on what kind it is. A good portion of food is recommended. Saradomin brew may prove essential in life and death situations, as it gives a 25% Defence bonus, and a 15% Hitpoints boost.

Switch Worlds
For higher level ores such as adamantite or runite, it is sometimes faster to switch between servers rather than wait for the rocks to respawn. This is not recommended for any lower level ores.

Training
Here are possible ways for a player to raise their mining level.


 * Level 1 to 15: Mine copper and tin rocks. An alternative which also levels Runecrafting or provides income is rune essence, clay can also be mined to level Crafting. Rune essence is easier to mine because only one click is required and a full inventory is mined in one go. Rune essence can be mined, after completing the Rune Mysteries quest, by talking to Aubry in Varrock.
 * Level 15 to 60: Mine iron rocks. Iron can be obtained quickly, making it a valuable rock to use when levelling up. Iron is the best ore to gain experience all the way to level 85. If coins are needed coal can be mined, but it's better to wait until access to the guild has been granted. From level 41 onwards the player can equip a rune pickaxe and mine iron in one hit. The absolute fastest way to level from 41 mining onward is to go to the Al Kharid mine. Towards the north part of the mine there are 3 iron rocks grouped together. The mine also contains aggressive level 14 scorpions that attack players with combat levels of 28 or lower. Mine the three rocks and quickly drop the ore while waiting for them to respawn. This should take 6-10 seconds and will give 105 experience. Using this method (assuming it's done in 10 seconds) here is how long going from level 41 to level 60 should take, by level:
 * 42---7 min
 * 43---7 min 30 sec
 * 44---8 min 30 sec
 * 45---9 min
 * 46---10 min
 * 47---11 min
 * 48---12 min 30 sec
 * 49---14 min
 * 50---15 min
 * 51---16 min
 * 52---18 min
 * 53---20 min
 * 54---22 min
 * 55---25 min
 * 56---27 min
 * 57---30 min
 * 58---33 min
 * 59---37 min
 * 60---41 min
 * It's also possible to mine 28 ore and hire runners to take this ore by trading, which requires less clicking.
 * Level 60 to 85: Mine coal rocks in the Mining Guild if coins are needed, otherwise continue with iron. Getting up these levels will take much longer and players should be prepared to put in some time. Powermining iron as recommended for the previous levels will take about 84 hours of work. Putting in an one hour a day it could be done in about 3 months. If the player can mine three iron and drop them in under 10 seconds it will take less time for them to level up.
 * Level 85 to 99: To continue leveling the player should now mine coal in the guild. If coins are wanted mine rune ore, which can be found in the wilderness of both free-to-play and members worlds. There are also 2 rocks in the Heroes Guild for members.

Quests

 * Digsite Quest - 15300 experience
 * Enakhra's Lament - 7000 experience
 * Between a Rock... - 5000 experience
 * The Lost Tribe - 3000 experience
 * Heroes Quest - 2575 experience
 * The Giant Dwarf - 2500 experience
 * Plague City - 2425 experience
 * Doric's Quest (Non-member) - 1300 experience

Temporary boosts

 * Dwarven Stout - Drinking this will raise a player's mining and Smithing level by 1 for a short time. Dwarven stouts can be bought in Falador one at a time, or members can buy them in Burthorpe in quantities up to 12, at which point the stock is expended and the player must wait for the store to restock. 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.
 * Mature Dwarven Stout - Members only. Drinking this will raise a player's mining and Smithing by level 2 for a short time. Players receive two mature dwarven stouts as a reward for completing the quest Forgettable Tale, but they can also be brewed using the Cooking skill.

Special Mining Areas Explained

 * Coal Trucks - The coal trucks are located west from Camelot 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 Seer's bank
 * Slow Way: To walk all the way around the lake, past the fishing guild, to Camelot.
 * Once in Camelot go north-west from Camelot 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.


 * Mining Guild - In the mining guild there are 37 coal and 5 mithril rocks. It is close to a bank but requires quite a bit of walking to get to the bank. Level 60 Mining is required to enter. There is one especially efficient place to mine, in the northeast 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 spell, allows the player to smith the ores they mine.  The smithed items can be turned into coins with the high alchemy spell or sold at the nearby shop avoiding trips to the bank.