Runescape Skill Guides:Mining

Training and Making Money
So you are working on raising your mining level and want to know how to make the most out of it? Well, that is why I am here, and I suppose that is probably why you are as well. Therefore, I will begin off simply.

Levels 1 to 20
At this level, somewhere between one and twenty mining, there really is not a whole lot to do in the way of money, so you want to be concentrating on levels. The nice thing about low levels such as these is how incredibly easy it is to raise it rapidly. If you are at level one, I suggest you do one of two things: Either go "powermining," and not worry about how many of what and all that, or mine in a way that you can raise your smithing as well.

If you wish just to get a high mining level for the time being, I suggest you start out in the Eastern Varrock Mine mine with a bronze pickaxe. It is not much, but it will suit. The location of this mine is self-explanatory. To get to it you want to go out of the east gate of Varrock and turn directly south. The mine is just west of the road. Once there, you want to mine any tin or copper rocks you can get your hands on until your inventory is full. Once that occurs, bring your load of ores up to the eastern Varrock bank and deposit them, and return to the mine to do it again. Because there are no monsters prowling the area, you do not need any specific combat level to mine here. You can also sell these ores to the store in the Champion's guild, if you can access it. This is a shorter trip than to the bank.

However, if you want to raise your Smithing a bit as well as you mining, I would suggest once again going to the South-east Varrock mine; but this time be careful to keep a strict 1:1 ratio between the tin and copper that you mine. Bank it after each load; you can smelt it later.

Levels 21 to 40
You are starting to make good progress. You can now mine, in addition to Tin and Copper, Iron and Silver. At this point, I would suggest you try getting a steel pickaxe. A steel pickaxe is not necessary to have, but will make mining faster and easier. You can also by now mine iron without too much of a problem. I now suggest that, regardless of the path you wish to take, you start mining iron by the truckload. There are two good locations for this. You can remain at the Eastern Varrock Mine mine, which I recommend, or you could also move to the Al Kharid Chasm. However, because of level 14 scorpions which reside in that mine you probably want to keep your distance.

Soon you are going to have a substantial amount of iron in your bank. It is after you have a couple hundred you need to start making your first big decisions. You can smelt your iron ores into bars, with a 50% chance of success, provided you have 15 Smithing, or you can try finding someone who will buy them from you. If you choose to sell your iron, I recommend doing it through an online forum, not in game. Look around the RuneScape Community Mining section of the market, and I am sure you will be able to find some people who are buying iron ores. If you are satisfied with the amount they are offering to pay, I would not sell for below 90gp per ore myself, sign up if you have not already done so and reply to the topic telling how many iron you have, what you sell for, and what your RuneScape name is, as applicable.

Keep mining iron, and selling it if you wish, and eventually you will have 41 mining and a good deal of money.

Levels 41 to 58
By now I presume you have 41 mining. You have the ability to mine coal and gold. If you can scrape together 32k, I highly recommend you buy a rune pickaxe from Nurmof the pickaxe merchant. As far as mining goes, it would now be wise to switch from iron to coal. At this level you will have to make do with the coal rocks in the Barbarian Mine, but it will be worth it soon enough.

If you still have some iron left in your bank, one possibility is to begin smelting steel bars and selling them for money. One steel bar requires an iron and two coal, sells on average at 600gp each. However, if you do not have any iron left and do not feel like getting more, or you do not have 30 Smithing to smelt the steel bars, you could also just mine coal and sell it for about 200gp each. I must admit, this is where mining gets the most boring thus far, so make sure you keep at it.

You could also continue powermining iron if you wish; the best place is in the Grand Tree mine, as there are about 6 iron rocks right beside each other. Simply mine one ore, drop it, then move on to the next one - this is very fast exp.

Another alternative for members, is that of mining granite at the desert quarry, located south-east of the Bandit Camp. The experience for these ores is greater than coal, and can be mined with great ease.

The mine south to Falador, has many rocks, including iron and gold. It's a good spot to powermine iron ore and bank isn't that far as well.

Levels 59 to 74
Similarly with the above bracket, you could continue powermining iron if you wish. However, this level bracket is where you can really begin to get the most out of mining. You may not realize it, but as with all guilds, you can access the Miners' Guild accessed before you ever reach 60 mining. Well, specifically, you need 59. My suggestion is to buy a number of Dwarven Stouts from the tavern in Falador. Drinking one of these will temporarily raise your mining and Smithing levels by one, enabling you to get into the guild if you drink one just before going down the ladder or clicking the door to enter the guild.

Once you have gotten into the guild, you want to start mining coal. When mining, if you find one server too crowded, you want to switch to one of the more popular worlds. On free-to-play, those would most likely be servers 1, 3, 4, and 5. It does not seem to make much sense, but everyone has the same mindset: go to the less crowded worlds. Because of that, there are less people in the guild on the more popular servers. Keep mining until you have a complete load full of coal, then head north to the ladders. Climb one, and click to the north of the circle of buildings around you. Eventually a bank will come into sight. Enter it and deposit your coal. Then get out another Dwarven stout, and head back to the mine. After a number of trips, probably about ten, you will have 60 mining and several hundred coal in your bank.

From level 60 mining, you can do whatever you want. In the Miners' Guild are 37 coal rocks and 5 Mithril rocks. You can continue to mine coal, or you can move to Mithril ores, which sell for about 350gp each. Just be aware, if you move to Mithril, you are going to spend more time mining the same amount of ores due to the much higher level required. One good strategy at this level, if you want to raise your Smithing level as well, is to mine both coal and iron and periodically smith them into steel bars, provided you have 30 smithing. Once you have a large amount of steel bars, you can do one of two things: you can smith them into steel items and further raise your Smithing level, or you can sell them to a player via Runescape Community or another forum for about 500gp per bar. If you are a member, a great way to make money is to smith cannonballs from the steel bars you make.

Levels 75 to 84
You have done it. You got as far as being able to mine Adamantite, which is no easy feat. By this level, you can mine both coal and Mithril confidently, getting coal on the first swing quite frequently. The only way I can help you at this point is to suggest, if you have a combat level above 70, to begin mining with caution at the Hobgoblin Mine, which is directly north of Edgeville in about level 32 wilderness. However, it is a long walk to the Edgeville bank, the 32 coal, 19 Mithril, and 8 Adamantite rocks of this mine are far better than the mining guild at your level. If you decide to mine here, bring a melee weapon, rune pickaxe, and a couple food items, as there are aggressive level 28 hobgoblins (regardless of your combat level) and the always-looming threat of a Player Killer.

Levels 85 to 99
You did it. You can now call yourself an official rune-miner. If you want to start making some big cash, you can start mining the Rune Rocks up in level 46 wilderness. Just be very careful, though, as people often try their luck against a couple rune ores. If you want to go for 99 mining, now, you probably want to start "power-mining"--dropping the ores as you mine. It allows for faster XP as you never have to make trips back and forth to a bank. However, as a downside, you cannot make any kind of profit mining this way.

Levels 65 to 99 ( Powermining granite )
As players have stated, you can get the fastest powermining experience in Enakhra's Quarry. You can get up to 45,000 experience per hour, if you concentrate enough. The best way to get there is to use flying carpets. Wear desert robes, a pickaxe and in your inventory have 25 ( 22 if using Humidify spell ) full waterskins and coins for a carpet ride. With the new quest, Dream Mentor you can use the spell Humidify to fill all of your waterskins.