Table of Contents
1.0 - Introduction
2.0 - Basics
3.0 - Levels and Requirements
3.1 - Pickaxes
3.2 - Ore Information
4.0 - Training and Making Money
5.0 - Random Events
6.0 - Miscellaneous
7.0 - Quests for Experience
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1.0 - Introduction
Welcome to the Zybez official mining guide. In this guide and manual, you will find
information on various ores, pickaxes, levels, as well as many other useful details. If
you are looking for specific information and know which section it would be under, it is
as easy as clicking the section, you want to go to in the Table of Contents and it will
take you to that section. So sit back and relax for a while, and we will do our best to
explain mining simply and clearly.
Mining is probably the most expansive skill in the game, with 14 different types of rocks,
tens if not hundreds of mines throughout the world of RuneScape, and being directly
associated with the skill that supplies people with weapons and armour. Mining in itself,
just ores and bars, accounts for more than 15% of the RuneScape economy.
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2.0 - Basics
Mining is a simple, almost self-explanatory skill. To increase your mining level, you mine
ores. The higher you raise your level, the more types of ores and rocks you can mine. Once
you know your way around mining well you will be able to tell the content of a rock simply
by looking at its colour. However, if you do not, there is a handy feature to help you. If
you are unsure about a rock, you first want to right-click on it, then click
"Prospect." Your character will then proceed to tell you what is (or perhaps is
not) in it.
If you have a pickaxe in your inventory or you are wielding it, you can start mining by
finding a level 1 ore, which would be either clay, tin, or copper. It will come slowly at
first, but as your level improves, you will find that you get the ores faster with each
try.
After you successfully mine an ore, the rock you mined it from will go "grey"
temporarily. This means there are no ores available in the rock. Once its colour returns,
you can mine it again. The time it remains empty depends on several things. First, each
rock has a separate "base" respawn time or the amount of time it takes for the
ore to return. This base changes by the amount of people on a server; the more people in
the world, the faster the respawn time, and the faster you get your next ore.
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3.0 - Levels and Requirements
3.1 - Pickaxes
Pickaxes are the only tools required for mining, however in order to use the best ones,
there is a requirement. This table shows the types of pickaxes, the mining level required
to use one, the attack needed to wield one, and the cost to buy one off Nurmof, the
pickaxe seller. Nurmof's shop is located in a room behind the anvils in the Dwarven Mines.
The better the pickaxe you use, the faster you will be able to mine ores and the higher
chance you will beat other people to them. Remember, even if you do not have a high enough
attack level to hold one, but have enough mining, you can still use the pickaxe! For
example, if I had 34 mining but only 27 attack, I could not hold an adamant pickaxe, but I
could still use it if I had it in my inventory while mining.
Picture Pickaxe Type Level to use (Mining) Level to wield (Attack) Cost
Bronze 1 1 1gp
Iron 1 1 140gp
Steel 6 5 500gp
Mithril 21 20 1,300gp
Adamant 31 30 3,200gp
Rune 41 40 32,000gp
3.2 - Ore Information
There are 11 types of metal ores as well as additional ores. Each has its use. The respawn
time depends on the amount of players in the server. Here is the basic data for each type:
Rock Ore Name Level Exp. Spawn Time Best location(s)
Clay 1 5 1 second West Varrock Mine
N/A Rune Essence 1 5 Instantly Rune Essence Mine
Tin 1 17.5 5 seconds Eastern Varrock Mine, Crafting Guild
Copper 1 17.5 5 seconds Eastern Varrock Mine
Limestone 10 26.5 10 seconds North-east Varrock Mine
Isafdar Limestone Mine
Blurite 10 17.5 40 seconds Ice Caves
Daeyalt 10 17.5 50 seconds Northern-most part of Meiyerditch
Iron 15 35 10 seconds Dwarven Mines or
South-east of Varrock
Elemental 20 40 2 minutes Elemental Workshop
Silver 20 40 2 minutes Crafting Guild
N/A Pure Essence 30 5 Instantly Member Rune Essence Mine
Coal 30 50 1 minute Miners' Guild
Hobgoblin Mine
Edgeville Skeleton Mine
Sandstone 35 60 (10kg)
50 (5kg)
40 (2kg)
30 (1kg) 8 seconds South-east of Bandit Camp (desert)
Gold 40 65 2 minutes Crafting Guild, Arzinian Gold Mine
Granite 45 75 (medium)
60 (small)
50 (tiny) 8 seconds South-east of Bandit Camp (desert)
Mithril 55 80 2-4 minutes Hobgoblin Mine
Adamant 70 95 6-8 minutes Hobgoblin Mine
Dwarven Mines
Edgeville Dungeon
Elven Mine
Runite 85 125 ~12-24 minutes Heroes' Guild
Rune Rocks, Fremennik Isles
Next is a complete list of all the known locations for these ores. Remember, not all of
these locations are very efficient.
Ore All Known Locations
Clay South-east Bandit Camp (desert), Crafting Guild, Dwarven Mines, Elidinis Clay Mine,
Grand Tree Rocks, Port Khazard Mine, Rellekka Mines, Rimmington Mine, West Varrock Mine
Tin Al-Kharid Chasm, Al Kharid Slave Camp, Barbarian Village, Dwarven Mines, Eastern
Varrock Mine, Edgeville Dungeon, northern Fremennik Isles, Haunted Mine, Jatizso Dungeon
Mine, Lumbridge Swamp Mines, Port Khazard Mine, Rimmington Mine, Taverley Mine, West
Varrock Mine
Limestone North-east Varrock Mine, Isafdar Limestone Mine
Copper Al-Kharid Chasm, Al Kharid Slave Camp, Dwarven Mines, Eastern Varrock Mine,
Edgeville Dungeon, northern Fremennik Isles, Haunted Mine, Lumbridge Swamp Mines, Port
Khazard Mine, Rimmington Mine, Taverley Mine
Blurite Ice Caves
Daeyalt Northern-most part of Meiyerditch
Iron Al-Kharid Chasm, Al Kharid Slave Camp, Circle of Iron, Dwarven Mines, Dorgeshuun
mines, East Ardougne Mine, Eastern Varrock Mine, Edgeville Dungeon, Edgeville North Mine,
Evil Chicken Mine, Grand Tree Rocks, Haunted Mine, Hobgoblin Mine, Jatizso Dungeon Mine,
Karamja Jungle Mine, Pirate's Mine, Port Khazard Mine, Rellekka Mines, Rimmington Mine,
Taverley Mine, West Varrock Mine
Elemental Elemental Workshop
Silver Al-Kharid Chasm, Crafting Guild, Digsite mine shafts, Dorgeshuun mines, Edgeville
Dungeon, Evil Chicken Mine, Grand Tree Rocks, Karamja Jungle Mine, Rellekka Mines, Temple
of Zaros, TzHaar mine, West Varrock Mine
Coal Al-Kharid Chasm, Al Kharid Slave Camp, south-east Bandit Camp (desert), Barbarian
Village, Coal Trucks, Crandor Mines, Circle of Iron, Dwarven Mines, East Ardougne Mine,
Edgeville Dungeon, Edgeville North Mine, Evil Chicken Mine, Fremennik Isles Rune Mine,
northern Fremennik Isles, Grand Tree Rocks, Heroes' Guild Dungeon, Haunted Mine, Hobgoblin
Mine, Jatizso Dungeon Mine, Karamja Jungle Mine, Lumbridge Swamp Mines, Miners' Guild,
Pirate's Mine, Port Khazard Mine, Rellekka Mines, Skeleton Mine, Taverley Mine
Sandstone South-east Bandit Camp (desert)
Gold Al-Kharid Chasm, Arzinian Gold Mine, Brimhaven Circle of Gold, Brimhaven South,
Crafting Guild, Crandor Mines, Dwarven Mines, Evil Chicken Mine, Grand Tree Rocks, Karamja
Volcano, Rimmington Mine, Sophanem Gold Mine, TzHaar mine
Granite South-east Bandit Camp (desert)
Mithril Al-Kharid Chasm, Al Kharid Slave Camp, Ancient Cavern Mith, Crandor Mines, Dwarven
Mines, Edgeville Dungeon, Evil Chicken Mine, Grand Tree Rocks, Haunted Mine, Heroes' Guild
Dungeon, Hobgoblin Mine, Jatizso Dungeon Mine, Karamja Jungle Mine, Miners' Guild,
Pirate's Mine, Port Khazard Mine, Rellekka Mines
Adamantite Al-Kharid Chasm, Al Kharid Slave Camp, Crandor Mines, Dwarven Mines, Edgeville
Dungeon, Grand Tree Rocks, Haunted Mine, Heroes' Guild Dungeon, Hobgoblin Mine, Jatizso
Dungeon Mine, Karamja Jungle Mine, Pirate's Mine,
Runite Fremennik Isles Rune Mine, Heroes' Guild Dungeon, Lava Maze Dungeon, Rune Rocks
Level 46 Wilderness, West Ardougne Mourner's dungeon, near Dark Beasts (level-182)
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4.0 - 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 Valiane upstairs 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.A great way to end up with a
small profit and fast experience, is to mine in the Dorgeshuun mines as there are many
rocks and Mystag the cave goblin will buy all your iron ore for 13gp each. If you have
access to the Culiomancer's chest, then banking the ore wouldn't make much trouble.
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 400-500gp 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 a camulet. An alternative way to get there, is to use the
flying carpets. Wear desert robes, a pickaxe and in your inventory have 25 ( About 10-15
if you're planning to use 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.
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5.0 - Random Events
While mining, as any other time, there are a number of random events you can encounter,
among which are these unique random events.
Rock Golem - Rock Golems are monsters that appear at times when you try to mine a rock.
Their level depends on your combat level, as with other aggressive random events. If a
very low combat level (under 3-10), you will receive a level 14 Rock Golem, level 11-20
will recieve a lvl 29. Level 21-40 get a level 49, level 41-60 get level 79. Level 61-90
will get a level 120 Rock Golem. 90+ combat players will recieve a level 159 Rock Golem.
Rock Golems throw rocks at you, so merely putting yourself on the other side of an
ore-containing rock will no longer protect you from it.
Gaseous Rock - It will appear in the form of a rock with green-gray bubbles coming out of
it. When you see this, DO NOT attempt to mine this rock, because it will then explode and
you will have damaged your pickaxe, which you can have Nurmof fix (use the damaged pickaxe
with Nurmof to have him fix it). If nobody attempts to mine a "bubbling" rock,
it will return to normal after 20 seconds or so. The price to fix a Rune pickaxe is
1100gp, for other types it would be less.
Broken pickaxe - In this case, the pickaxe head flies off while you try mining and lands
on the ground within sight of the screen. You must simply pick it up and use it with the
handle to fix the pickaxe. You may then continue mining.
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6.0 - Miscellaneous
Here are some other interesting things you should know about while mining.
Gems - At times while you are mining, you will find a gem. You can sell them for a bit of
cash or cut and used to make amulets. The higher the level needed to mine a rock, the more
of a chance of finding a gem. You will also find more gems if you are wearing a charged
Dragonstone amulet (members only). If you have a membership, there are also Gem Rocks in
Shilo Village, which you can mine after completing the appropriate quest. These provide
you with a gem with each successful hit.
Dwarven Stout - These are purchased from the Falador Tavern for 3gp, and the result is a
temporary +1 to both your mining and Smithing levels, which lasts for about 20 seconds, a
minute at most. It is quite useful for getting ores before you have the required level, or
getting into the mining guild at only 59 mining. Members may brew their own beer, as well
as buy or brew mature ales which have double the potency.
Braindeath Rum - After you have drank the Braindeath Rum, you will get +1 Mining
temporarily, as well as more Strength and Hitpoints. If you want the rum, then it can be
purchased from Harpoon Joe's House of 'Rum', located in Mos Le'harmless.
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Quests for Experience
Another Slice of H.A.M.: 3,000 XP
Between a Rock...: 5,000 XP
Digsite Quest: 15,000 XP
Doric's Quest: 1,300 XP
Enakhra's Lament: 7,000 XP
The Giant Dwarf: 2,500 XP
Heroes Quest : 2,575 XP
The Lost Tribe: 3,000 XP
Plague City: 2,425 XP
Quests with a choice Experience
A Fairy Tale Part II: 2,500 XP in any skill of your choice over level 30.
King's Ransom: 5,000 XP in any skill of your choice.
Great Brain Robbery, The: 5,000 XP for any skill you choose over level 30.
Legends Quest: 7,650-30,600 XP (7,650 is given to 4 skills from a list of skills)
One Small Favour: 10,000-20,000 XP (2 x 10,000 lamps for any skill of your choice over
level 30)
Recipe for Disaster: 20,000 XP (A Lamp to grant 20,000xp in a skill of your choice over
level 50)<table class="table_ch"></table>
