Mining is one of the three gathering skills in World of Warcraft. Ore, gems and other raw material obtained from mining are used in crafting items. This World of Warcraft mining guide will help you level up your mining skill from 1 to 525 quickly, while leveling up your character. Please note that we have updated this WoW mining guide for the latest expansion ‘Cataclysm’.
Tools of the trade
First things first! You will need to learn mining skill from a trainer in order to start mining in WoW. Your character needs to be at least level six, and should have not learned more than one primary profession already in order to learn the mining skill from the trainer.
Next, you need a mining pick which you can purchase from the nearest NPC Trade Supplies, General Goods, Blacksmithing Supplies vendor. Last requirement, is to make sure that you have enough space in your bags to carry the ore you mine.
After learning mining skill, you will notice two new abilities in your skill book. ‘Find Minerals’ and ‘Smelt Ore’. The first skill can be turned on to track ore deposits near you, which will show them on you mini map as yellow color dots as you get in a certain range. The second skill ‘smelt or’, enables you to smelt the ore in your bags if you are near a forge.
When you hove your mouse pointer over an ore deposit, you will note that the name of the deposit is displayed in either red, orange, yellow, green or gray color. This color scheme represents the difficulty level of the ore deposit compared to your current skill level. Red ones you cannot mine as they require a higher skill level. Orange is ideal as it will grant you a skill point every time you mine one of these veins or deposits. Yellow has a lesser chance of gaining a skill point and green has a very low chance of a skill up. You cannot gain skill still points by mining deposits which display their name in ‘gray’ color.
A list of ores you can obtain from mining in World of Warcraft
Types of ore found in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms
Eight different types of ores can found here. Bronze and Steel are not mined, but smelted using other ore and/or raw material. By combining 1x copper bar and 1x tin bar, a miner with a skill level of 65+ can produce 2x bronze bars by using his ‘smelt’ skill. Making steel bars requires a skill level of 165 and, 1x iron bar and 1x coal (you can buy coal from NPC vendors) are needed to produce a steel bar.
| Type of vein/deposit | Required skill |
| Copper | 1 |
| Tin | 65 |
| Bronze (smelted using copper + tin) | 65 |
| Silver | 75 |
| Iron | 125 |
| Gold | 155 |
| Steel (smelted using iron + coal) | 165 |
| Mithril | 175 |
| Truesilver | 205 |
| Dark Iron | 230 |
| Thorium (small) | 230 |
| Thorium (rich) | 255 |
Types of ore found in Outland (zone added in the first expansion: The Burning Crusade)
Four different types of ore can be found here. In addition to gems, there is chance of getting motes of earth and motes of fire from each and every vein you mine. Also, there is a chance of getting Eternium Ore, which can be used to create Eternium bars.
| Type of vein/deposit | Required skill |
| Fel Iron | 300 |
| Adamantite | 325 |
| Rich Adamantite | 350 |
| Khorium | 375 |
Types of ore found in Northrend (zone added in Wrath of the Lich King)
In addition to the gems, when mining ore deposits in Northrend, you have a random chance of getting crystalized earth, fire, air or water.
| Type of vein/deposit | Required skill |
| Cobalt | 350 |
| Rich Cobalt | 375 |
| Saronite | 400 |
| Rich Saronite | 425 |
| Titanium | 450 |
| Titansteel (smelted, not mined) | 450 |
Types of ore found in the new expansion ‘Cataclysm’
The newly discovered zones in the latest expansion contain five different ore deposits which gives you three different kinds of ore. In addition to the gems, there is chance of getting volatile air, fire or earth from these deposits. Engineer/miners have a greater chance of getting volatile air with a use of mote-extractor.
| Type of vein/deposite | Required skill |
| Obsidium | 425 |
| Rich Obsidium | 450 |
| Elementium | 475 |
| Rich Elementium | 500 |
| Pyrite | 525 |
Useful addons for mining
Before you continue, please do a search on Google for “Gatherer”, World of Warcraft addon and install it. This is by far the best addon out there to help players with gathering professions and will make your life easier and leveling up of your gathering skills much faster.
Leveling your mining skill from 1 to 65
You have already become an apprentice in mining by learning the skill from a trainer. Now pick up your mining pick and start mining!
All starting areas have plenty of copper veins, which you can start mining at the very start. Note that you can gain skill points by smelting ore as well if you are in the correct skill range. I have listed all the starting areas below to make it easy for you to identify the ideal zones, to level up your mining skill to level 65.
The starting areas are,
- Tirisfal Glades (Undead)
- Mulgore (Tauran)
- Durotar (Orc/Troll)
- Ellwyn Forest (Human)
- Eversong Woods (Blood Elves)
- Goblins (Azshara)
- Teldrassil (Night Elves)
- Gilneas (Worgen)
- Dun Morogh (Dwarves/Gnomes)
- Draenei (Azuremyst Isle)
Leveling Mining from 65 to 125
Visit a mining trainer and learn ‘Journeyman Mining’ skill. Smelt any remaining ore in your bags as they might level up your skill. Bets type of ore deposits to level up at this stage are tin and silver. If you are playing horde, barrens and Ashenvale are good choices. For alliance players, Darkshore, Wetlands or Redridge Mountains will be best depending on the race you are playing or which zone you are currently in.
A lot of online guides out there has screenshots of the zone min-maps marked with possible locations of the ore deposits. I find it inconvenient to switch back and forth from the game to windows to check where exactly these ore deposits are. You should be already using the ‘gatherer’ addon. Just remember the recommended zone names and you don’t need to look at any zone maps online at all.
Leveling Mining from 125 to 175
Now its a good time to learn ‘Expert Mining’ skill. Smelt all ore in your bags as usual for possible skill gains.
At this level, iron and gold veins are ideal for you to further level up your mining skill. The best zones are Arathi Highlands, Thousand Needles and Stranglethorn Vale.
Things will get a little difficult as most veins in there areas will be close to mobs. You will have to kill them before you start mining these veins. Not to mention in PvP servers, you will be competing with players from opposite faction and some of them will not like you trying to get their ore and attack you.
I find it best to level up your professions while you are leveling up your character. This way, you will always be in a zone filled with mobs close to your character level and, the zone will definitely contain the correct types of ore deposits needed to level you you mining skills further. This is due to the way game developers have designed World of Warcraft.
Leveling Mining from 175 to 250
Keep mining until you hit the skill level of 200. Best zones are Tanaris, Badlands and Hinterlands, as they contain lot of Mithril and occasionally Truesilver. Visit trainer when your mining skill is at 200 and learn to become an artisan miner. Return to your chosen zone and keep mining.
Leveling Mining from 250 to 300
You should be always smelting any remaining ore in your bags for possible skill up. I am not going to repeat that line from now on, but you should be doing it all the time.
Now its a good time to mine small thorium deposits and smelt the ore for additional skill gains. Once you reach 275 skill, you can star mining rich thorium deposits and go all the way to 300. Best zones are Un’Goro Crater, Silithus and Winterspring. Note that most of the caves and underground tunnels complexes in both Un’Goro and Silithus contain more thorium deposits you could mine. These can be mined while questing/grinding without much trouble.
Leveling Mining from 300 to 350
You are getting closer and closer to your objective o becoming a great miner! Go to the trainer and become a ‘Master miner’. This will allow you to level your mining skill from 300 to 350.
You should be close to or just above level 60 at this point and should have no problems reaching outland. Hellfire Peninsula, the first zone you discover upon entering outland trough the Dark Portal, has plenty of Fel Iron deposits. You can easily raise your skill level to 325 by mining fel iron.
It is possible to go all the way to 350 by mining fel iron, but at 325 skill level you are able to mine Adamantite. The best zone for this is Nagrand. Zangermash contains both Fel Iron and Adamantite as well.
Leveling Mining from 350 to 400
Visit the trainer and learn to be a ‘Grand Master’ miner. It is possible to gain further skill points in outland, but this would be a good time to move to Northrend. Once you are in Northrend, start looking for Cobalt deposits. Keep mining and smelting Cobalt until you hit 375. At 375, you can mine Rich Cobalt deposits.
Best zones are Howling Fjord and Zul’Drak.
Leveling Mining from 400 to 450
Rich cobalt can further level you up. But my advice would be to look for Saronite deposits. Ideal location for this would be Sholazar Basin. This map is filled with ore, quests and.. players as well 
At skill level 425, you can mine Rich Saronite deposits as well. These will take you to 450 skill level very fast. You can mine Titanium only when you reach 450.
Leveling Mining from 450 to 525
Learn the last rank of mining “Illustrious Grand Master Mining” from a trainer. You can stay in Northrend and look for Titanium if you are ion need of extra Titanium to level your crafting skills. If not, move to the new lands discovered in the Cataclysm to mine Obsidium deposits.
Mount Hyjal and Vashj’ir are good zones. If you don’t like underwater mining, you can go to Mount Hyjal, but I find less players mining in Vashj’ir so it’s a better place for me.
At 475, you can start mining Elementium. Deepholm is by far the best zone at this stage. Twilight Highlands contain many Rich Elementium deposits which will take you all the way to the current skill cap for mining.. 525.
Congratulations!! you have reached your level cap! Now go and look for Pyrite deposits. You can make good money with these.
(by Ellwynda, US:Arygos)