Coal

Coal is a resource that can be obtained through Mining coal rocks or concentrated 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. Players can, however, mine it at a faster rate the higher their Mining level. After being mined, a coal rock takes an average of 42 seconds to respawn. Coal is needed to make elemental, steel, mithril, adamant, and rune bars.

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

Free to Play
The Mining Guild at Falador is first of the most popular ways of mining coal (Minimum level 60 required to enter) as it has at least 30 coal rocks. The Dwarven Mine is second 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 113 may be attacked by level 56 King Scorpions. However, oftentimes, players will forcefully take the areas being mined in due to the area's popularity. 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. Note, however that this place is almost always crowded by a sizable amount of botters. This causes many people to turn 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. 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 coal through Fadli in the Duel Arena or the Al-Kharid bank. But this mine usually has people in it. Another good area to mine coal is the Barbarian Village. There are four coal rocks, and it is not far from a 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 players have level 5 Agility, they 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. However, low-level players may find it difficult to mine here, 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. In order to gain 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 players 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 120-140 monsters which inhabit the dungeon, many of which use ranged attacks.

If a player has 15 dungeoneering, they can get into the dwarven mine resource dungeon, 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 was removed on 1 February 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 rocks, the competition over rocks caused the bots to decrease mining efficiency among themselves and legitimate players, causing the price to rise dramatically. It's currently at coins. Players may prefer to mine iron ore instead of coal, because it can be mined at a faster rate.

Making money
Despite there being better options, 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 rocks 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 rock 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

 * If mining in the Dwarven Hidden Mine and banking via deposit box, alongside using a Dragon Pickaxe with full Golden Mining Suit yields roughly 25k mining experience per hour.
 * 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. Players 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 the examine is "Hmm a non-renewable energy source!" while at the same time, coal respawns fast as described above.