Mining

Mining
Released	4 January 2001 (Update)
Also called	Mine
Members	No
Type	Gathering
Statistics
Players with; 99	102,378; as of 1 March 2024 - update
Players with; 200M XP	163; as of 17 March 2024 - update

This article has skill training guides: Members

Skill training guides document optimal XP/hour methods to train a skill, as well as alternate passive or less expensive methods.

File:Mining icon (detail).png

Mining is a skill that allows players to obtain ores and gems from rocks. The higher a player's Mining level is the more likely they are to successfully extract ore. With ores, a player can then either smelt bars and make equipment using the Smithing skill or sell them for profit. Mining is one of the most popular skills in RuneScape as many players try to earn a profit from the skill. Mining areas are identified with a regular pickaxe File:Mining site icon.png icon, and mining shops are identified with a gold pickaxe File:Mining shop icon.png icon on the minimap and world map.

How to mine

File:Mining.gif

A player using a rune pickaxe to mine ores.

The player can click on rocks in a mine to mine them, as long as they are wielding a pickaxe or have one in their inventory. After mining for a short amount of time, the player will obtain an ore or a gemstone, depending on the rock mined. Ores can be used for Smithing, and gemstones for Crafting. Rocks cannot be mined with a full inventory.

Every mining cycle, there is a chance to succeed and obtain an ore. Using a higher-tier pickaxe can increase mining speed by reducing the time to the next mining cycle. The chance of success each cycle varies by ore and increases with the player's mining level.

Pickaxes

Pickaxes, or "picks," are needed to mine rocks. They can be equipped as a weapon, giving players one extra space in their inventory. However, pickaxes cannot be made using the Smithing skill. Pickaxes can be bought from either Nurmof in the Dwarven Mine or Tati in Keldagrim, or from other players. Nurmof's Pickaxe Shop in the Dwarven Mine is labelled on the minimap as a gold pickaxe.

A player's Mining level determines the type of pickaxe they can mine with. Higher level pickaxes grant more frequent opportunities to obtain an ore from a rock, but have no effect upon the chance of successfully doing so.^[1]

	Level	Level^{[p 1]}	GE Price	Members	Weight	Ticks between rolls
Bronze pickaxe	1	1	Lua error: .	0	2.267 kg	8
Iron pickaxe	1	1	20	0	2.267 kg	7
Steel pickaxe	6	5	50	0	2.267 kg	6
Black pickaxe	11	10	100	0	0.01 kg	5
Mithril pickaxe	21	20	200	0	1.814 kg	5
Adamant pickaxe	31	30	2,000	0	2.721 kg	4
Rune pickaxe	41	40	5,000	0	2.267 kg	3
Dragon pickaxe	61	60	10,000	1	2.4 kg	2.83^{[p 2]}
Infernal pickaxe^{[p 3]}	61	60	Lua error: .^{[p 4]}	1	1.36 kg	2.83^{[p 2]}
3rd age pickaxe	61	65	375,000	1	2.4 kg	2.83^{[p 5]}
Crystal pickaxe^{[p 6]}	71	70^{[p 7]}	Lua error: .^{[p 8]}	1	1.36 kg	2.75^{[p 9]}

↑ The listed Attack levels are only required to wield the pickaxes, not use them.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 3 ticks by default, 1/6 chance to be 2 ticks.
↑ The infernal pickaxe also requires 85 Smithing to use.
↑ Listed price is the combined cost of a smouldering stone and a dragon pickaxe.
↑ 3 ticks by default, 1/6 chance to be 2 ticks.
↑ Requires completion of Song of the Elves to create and use.
↑ The crystal pickaxe has an additional requirement of 50 Agility to wield.
↑ Listed price is the combined cost of a crystal tool seed and a dragon pickaxe, and does not include the value of the crystal shards.
↑ 3 ticks by default, 1/4 chance to be 2 ticks.

Other equipment

Besides the pickaxes discussed above, the following items have some effect on mining:

Parts of prospector outfit increase Mining experience rates.
Varrock armour provides a 10% chance to mine two ores of certain types (depending on tier) simultaneously, giving experience for both ores.
Mining cape provides a 5% chance of receiving an extra ore while mining ore up to adamantite, giving experience for both ores.
Mining gloves, Superior mining gloves and Expert mining gloves provide a chance that when mining certain ores, the rock will not be depleted.
The bracelet of clay causes soft clay to be obtained from clay rocks rather than raw clay, and doubles the yield from soft clay rocks.
The celestial ring provides an invisible +4 boost to the player's mining level. This boost does not allow the player to mine ore above their mining level. When charged with stardust, it gives the player a 10% chance to obtain an extra ore from rocks up to adamantite.
The elven signet offers a 10% chance to prevent the crystal pickaxe from consuming a charge when an ore is mined.
The celestial signet combines the effects of the celestial ring and the elven signet.
Coal bag can store up to 27 Coal, possibly improving mining efficiency.
Gem bag can store up to 60 uncut gems of each Sapphire to Dragonstone, possibly improving efficiency when mining gem rocks or perhaps even in Motherlode Mine.
A charged amulet of glory increases the chances of randomly finding gems while mining from 1/256 to 1/86, if it has a minimum of 1 charge remaining. It also significantly boosts mining gem rocks.
Ring of wealth (i) doubles the chance to receive easy-elite clue geodes when in the Wilderness.

Mineable items

Ores are obtained from the different types of rocks, usually found in mines. On the minimap, mines are labelled with a grey pickaxe. The colour of a rock corresponds to the ore's colour.

When players click on a rock, they will hit it with their pickaxe and try to get the ore out. Higher level rocks such as mithril and adamantite take longer to mine and may require some patience.

After the ore has been mined, the rock will turn grey for a while. Eventually the 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, runite rocks take 12 minutes to respawn while iron rocks take about three seconds.

Item		Mining		GE Price	Members
Item		Level	Exp	GE Price	Members
	Clay	1	5	Lua error: .	0
	Rune essence	1	5	Lua error: .	0
	Copper	1	17.5	4	0
	Tin	1	17.5	4	0
	Limestone	10	26.5	Lua error: .	1
	Stardust	10-90	32	N/A	0
	Blurite	10	17.5	N/A	0
	Barronite	14	16	N/A	0
	Iron	15	35	5	0
	Daeyalt	20	17.5	N/A	1
	Silver	20	40	Lua error: .	0
	Volcanic ash	22	10	Lua error: .	1
	Pure essence	30	5	100	1
	Coal	30	50	8	0
	Pay-dirt	30	60	N/A	1
	Sandstone	35	30-60	N/A	1
	Dense essence block	38	12	N/A	1
	Gem rocks	40	65	Varies	1
	Gold	40	65	Lua error: .	0
Calcified rocks	Calcified rocks	41	33	N/A	1
	Volcanic sulphur	42	25	N/A	1
	Blasted ore	43	20	N/A	1
	Granite	45	50-75	N/A	1
	Mithril	55	80	14	0
	Lunar	60	0	N/A	1
	Daeyalt shard	60	5	N/A	1
	Lovakite	65	60	N/A	1
	Adamantite	70	95	20	0
	Soft clay	70	5	Lua error: .	1
	Salts	72	5	N/A	1
	Ancient essence	75	13.5	Lua error: .	1
	Runite	85	125	100	0
	Amethyst	92	240	Lua error: .	1

Gems

When mining, players have a 1/256 chance of rolling an uncut gem table instead of receiving an ore; this neither depletes the ore nor grants mining experience.^[2] Gems that can be found in rocks are uncut sapphires, uncut emeralds, uncut rubies and uncut diamonds.

A player's chances of finding gems are increased to 1/86 when wearing a charged amulet of glory.^[3]

Geodes

Clue geodes are rare hollow rocks that can be found when mining instead of receiving an ore. Searching the geode will give players a clue scroll of the same difficulty as the geode received.

Other

Barronite deposits have a chance to be obtained when mining for barronite shards.
Crystal shards have a chance to be obtained alongside the main product of rocks in the Trahaearn Mine.
Iron, silver, coal, gold, mithril, adamantite and runite ore fragment are mined from the boulder in the Volcanic Mine.
Soda ash is occasionally obtained while mining ash piles.
'perfect' gold ore can be obtained from the rocks in Witchaven Dungeon. They are used during the Family Crest quest but can still be mined and smelted after the quest is completed.
A magic stone is mined during the Tears of Guthix quest. The area cannot be accessed again after the quest is completed.
Various items can be obtained from Digsite digs.
Various items can be obtained by panning, notably gold nuggets.
Tephra is mined while fighting Zalcano.
Rocks can be mined from boulders in the Viyeldi Caves and piles of rock, giving the player 1 experience.
Daeyalt ore (not to be confused with daeyalt shards) can be mined from daeyalt rocks in the Meiyerditch mine for 17.5 experience, requiring level 20 mining. 15 pieces must be placed in the minecart to escape the mine.
Saltpetre can be obtained by digging deposits in Hosidius with a spade. Although it grants no experience, the amount obtained scales with mining level.
Book page 3 can be obtained randomly by mining most types of rock in the Dwarven Mines during Between a Rock...
A grey crystal is obtained by mining the Rock of Dalgroth during the Watchtower quest, requiring level 40 mining.
Lunar ore is mined from stalagmites in the Lunar Isle mine, requiring level 60 mining and granting no experience. It can still be mined after the quest is completed.
Crystal ore is mined from Crystal deposits in the Gauntlet, with a chance of granting crystal shards. In the Corrupted Gauntlet, corrupted ore and corrupted shards are obtained instead.
Guardian fragments are mined from Large guardian remains, Guardian remains, or Guardian parts, and Guardian essence is mined from Huge guardian remains, during the Guardians of the Rift minigame.
Stones could be mined during the Big Cats & WWF event.

Mines

Mines are areas where players can mine their ores. These may be on the surface or underground and are scattered around Gielinor. Some of these locations are accessible only after certain quests are complete and some are members-only.

Special mining areas and activities

Mining Guild

The Mining Guild is a special mining area within the dwarven mines, requiring level 60 Mining to enter (can be boosted). While accessible by Free-to-play players, an area of the mine is accessible solely by Members. There are numerous rocks in both sections, with especially large numbers of coal rocks.

Within the members' area of the mining guild, players will receive an invisible +7 level boost to their Mining, and have a chance to receive unidentified minerals while mining, which can be traded in for various mining gloves. It also contains two runite rocks and is the only place players can mine Amethyst. Players also have access to a Bank chest to deposit their ores quickly.

Motherlode Mine

The Motherlode Mine, requiring level 30 Mining and found within the dwarven mines, allows players to instead mine Pay-dirt and deposit it into a dwarven machine. When withdrawn, the player receives various random ores attainable at their current mining level. This process also has a chance of rewarding Gold nuggets, used to purchase helpful mining-related items such as the Coal bag, Gem bag, and Prospector outfit, as well as Soft clay packs and Bags full of gems.

Blast mine

The Blast mine, requiring level 43 Mining and found within Lovakengj, allows players to collect Blasted ores through the use of Dynamite; the usage of which also rewards a small amount of Firemaking experience. Blasted ores are then deposited to obtain various random ores; the blast mine is unique as players can receive ores that have level requirements up to ten above their current level.

Coal Trucks

Coal from the nearby coal rocks can be loaded onto the trucks, and unloaded in Seers' Village, which makes banking more convenient.

Trahaearn mine

The rocks in this mine have a chance of yielding crystal shards alongside the ore.

Volcanic mine

Players may mine ore fragments from a boulder in a volcanic chamber. This may be performed individually or in groups. In order to successfully mine here, players must maintain the stability of the mine, avoid lava beasts and navigate across pools of lava.

Shooting stars

Shooting Stars are a Distraction and Diversion in which a meteoroid falls from the sky approximately every hour and a half (90 minutes) across every in-game server. These appear as Crashed Stars that can be mined for stardust, which can be exchanged at a shop run by Dusuri at the Mining Guild entrance in Falador.

Zalcano

Zalcano is a skilling boss. In order to defeat her, players must mine tephra, refine it using the Smithing skill, imbue it using the Runecrafting skill, throw it at her and mine her once her armour is damaged enough.

Digsite

Various digs at the Digsite yield a variety of cheap or useless items and low amounts of experience. The panning activity yields a variety of inexpensive items (including nuggets, three sets of which can be exchanged for gold ore), and minuscule amounts of mining and fishing experience.

Cam Torum Mine

Cam Torum Mine's walls contain calcified rocks, when mined these drop blessed bone shards and calcified deposits. With blessed wine players can sacrifice shards at a Libation bowl. Yielding prayer xp.

Other uses

In Castle Wars, players can mine certain parts of the wall underground in order to fill the passageway with rocks. If other players are located under the rocks, they will be instantly killed.
In the Chambers of Xeric, the player's mining level and the average mining level of the team affect the damage on Guardians.
Several passages are blocked by objects that have to be mined before they can be crossed, such as rocks in the Abyss and the entrance to the Ice Queen's Lair.
Mining is used to animate the earth elementals that drop elemental ore. Although no actual mining is involved, a pickaxe that the player has the mining level to use is required.
In Tombs of Amascut, mining is used in the puzzle of Het, with 85 mining being needed to guarantee a one-down of the pillar. [requires links]

Tips

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 (although this can be minimised by making use of shift-click dropping). Also, by using this method, a player would be missing out on Smithing experience. Some locations useful for drop mining:

Al Kharid mine - The scorpions can be aggressive at low combat levels.
Dwarven Mine
Bandit Camp Quarry - Players will be susceptible to damage from desert heat
Mining Guild - The ores in the members-only section respawn twice as fast, allowing for non-stop iron mining.

Power-mining iron

There are currently ten mines in RuneScape where three iron rocks in a triangular formation can be mined without moving, thus ideal for power-levelling. They are as follows:

Mining gloves

Members can purchase two different types of mining gloves from the Mining Guild Mineral Exchange, a store run by Belona in the Mining Guild. Each pair of gloves provides a chance for the rock being mined to not deplete, which is very beneficial for players power-mining or mining higher tier ores. After purchasing both pairs of gloves, the player can combine the gloves to create Expert mining gloves by talking to Belona.

Item	Name	Effect
	Mining gloves	Provides a chance for extra ore from silver, coal, and gold
	Superior mining gloves	Provides a chance for extra ore from mithril, adamantite, and runite
	Expert mining gloves	Provides a chance for extra ore from silver, coal, gold, mithril, adamantite, runite, and amethyst

Reduce total weight

Players are recommended to wear few items or nothing at all other than their pickaxe. Members can wear the weight-reducing clothing. Wearing fewer items allows a player to run longer, as less energy is spent while running at lower weight values.

Switch worlds

For higher level rocks such as adamantite or runite, it is often faster to switch between worlds rather than waiting for the rocks to respawn. This is not recommended for lower level rocks as they respawn much faster.

Mining pet

File:Rock golem (follower).png

The rock golem is a members-only skilling pet that can be obtained while training Mining. The chances of getting it are dependent on the player's Mining level, and the time it takes to gather a resource.

Temporary boosts

Temporary skill boost/Mining

Quests

Quests requiring Mining

Quest	Mining requirement	Other skill requirements
The Knight's Sword	10	-
Tale of the Righteous	10	16
In Aid of the Myreque	15	25 , 7
The Lost Tribe	17	13 , 13
Tears of Guthix	20	49 , 20
Darkness of Hallowvale	20	40 , 22 , File:Construction icon.png 5 , 26 , 32 , 33
Elemental Workshop I	20	20 , 20
Spirits of the Elid	37	37 , 33 , 37
Between a Rock...	40	30 , 50
Family Crest	40	59 , 40 , 40
Watchtower	40	15 , 15 , 25 , 14
A Kingdom Divided	42	54 , 52 , 52 , 50 , 38 , 35
Heroes' Quest	50	55 , 53 , 53 , 25
Legends' Quest	52	50 , 50 , 45 , 56 , 42 , 50 , 50 , 50 , 50
Lunar Diplomacy	60	65 , 61 , 40 , 49 , 5 , 55
Dragon Slayer II	68	75 , 70 , 62 , 60 , 60 , File:Construction icon.png 50 , 50
Song of the Elves	70	70 , File:Construction icon.png 70 , 70 , 70 , 70 , 70 , 70
Making Friends with My Arm	72	File:Construction icon.png 35 , 66 , 68

Quests rewarding Mining experience

Quest	Experience reward	Mining requirement	Other requirements
The Forsaken Tower	500	-	-
Doric's Quest	1,300	-	-
Plague City	2,425	-	-
The Giant Dwarf	2,500	-	14 , 12 , 16 , 33
Heroes' Quest	2,575	50	55 , 53 , 53 , 25
Another Slice of H.A.M.	3,000	-	15 , 25
The Lost Tribe	3,000	17	13 , 13
Between a Rock...	5,000	40	30 , 50
Enakhra's Lament	7,000	45 -optional	50 , 45 , 43 , 39
The Dig Site	15,300	-	10 , 10 , 25
Song of the Elves	40,000	70	70 , File:Construction icon.png 70 , 70 , 70 , 70 , 70 , 70
Making Friends with My Arm	50,000	72	File:Construction icon.png 35 , 66 , 68
Dragon Slayer II	60,000	68	200 , 75 , 70 , 62 , 60 , 60 , File:Construction icon.png 50 ,
Total	192,600

Skill choice

Upon completing any of the following quests, players may choose to allocate experience to Mining. These rewards usually come in the form of items, such as lamps or books, and are independent of any experience rewards directly received for completing the quest. Template:SkillChoice

Changes

Date	Changes
[[{{#explode:15 March 2023\| \|0}} {{#explode:15 March 2023\| \|1}}]] [[{{#explode:15 March 2023\| \|2}}]] (update \| poll)	Most mining objects named "Rocks" has been renamed to "[ore type] rock". As a result, the "Prospect" option on all mineable rocks have been removed as it is no longer necessary.
[[{{#explode:7 December 2022\| \|0}} {{#explode:7 December 2022\| \|1}}]] [[{{#explode:7 December 2022\| \|2}}]] (update)	The random tick delay after mining copper, tin, coal, blurite, silver, volcanic ash, gem rocks, gold, mithril, Lovakite, adamantite, clay, salts, runite and amethyst has been removed.
[[{{#explode:5 March 2015\| \|0}} {{#explode:5 March 2015\| \|1}}]] [[{{#explode:5 March 2015\| \|2}}]] (update \| poll)	You now have a 10% chance to mine 2 ores at once for the completion of Varrock Diaries: Ore up to gold while wearing Varrock armour 1. Ore up to mithril while wearing Varrock armour 2. Ore up to adamantite while wearing Varrock armour 3. Ore up to runite while wearing Varrock armour 4.
[[{{#explode:6 June 2013\| \|0}} {{#explode:6 June 2013\| \|1}}]] [[{{#explode:6 June 2013\| \|2}}]] (update)	The mining animation has been updated to make it play an appropriate sound effect.
[[{{#explode:31 May 2013\| \|0}} {{#explode:31 May 2013\| \|1}}]] [[{{#explode:31 May 2013\| \|2}}]] (update \| poll)	The pickaxe animation, used when players mine normal rocks, has been reverted to an older version.
[[{{#explode:22 February 2013\| \|0}} {{#explode:22 February 2013\| \|1}}]] [[{{#explode:22 February 2013\| \|2}}]] (update)	This content was included when the Old School RuneScape servers officially launched.

References

↑ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 28 October 2019. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Mod Ash: "Your level affects the chance of getting ore each time the game rolls; your pickaxe affects how often that happens."
↑ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 9 May 2020. Mod Ash: "It adds a gem roll before each ore roll, and if you receive a gem you don't get the ore roll."
↑ Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 12 February 2017. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Mod Ash: "1 / 86 rather than 1/256 for a gem."

Template:Mining Template:Skills

[2] The listed Attack levels are only required to wield the pickaxes, not use them.

[:0-3] 2.0 ^2.1 3 ticks by default, 1/6 chance to be 2 ticks.

[4] The infernal pickaxe also requires 85 Smithing to use.

[5] Listed price is the combined cost of a smouldering stone and a dragon pickaxe.

[6] 3 ticks by default, 1/6 chance to be 2 ticks.

[7] Requires completion of Song of the Elves to create and use.

[8] The crystal pickaxe has an additional requirement of 50 Agility to wield.

[9] Listed price is the combined cost of a crystal tool seed and a dragon pickaxe, and does not include the value of the crystal shards.

[10] 3 ticks by default, 1/4 chance to be 2 ticks.

[1] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 28 October 2019. Archived from the original on 16 May 2020. Mod Ash: "Your level affects the chance of getting ore each time the game rolls; your pickaxe affects how often that happens."

[11] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 9 May 2020. Mod Ash: "It adds a gem roll before each ore roll, and if you receive a gem you don't get the ore roll."

[12] Jagex. Mod Ash's Twitter account. 12 February 2017. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Mod Ash: "1 / 86 rather than 1/256 for a gem."

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