OSRS Mining guide - Dig Out Various Valuables!

About skill

Just as Woodcutting and Firemaking or as Cooking and Fishing - Mining is a skill directly connected with another one - Smithing. Mining as the name suggest gives players ability to dig up certain ores and stones from rocks using pickaxe. As every gathering skill it is viable at money making while training although most efficient ways of leveling do not provide any gold. In this OSRS Mining guide you will see methods of reaching level 99.

Check also our full OSRS Skills Guide >>>

Mining items

Pickaxe

During mining, you need to have pickaxe with you at all times. It is worth noting that it doesn’t have to be equipped and can be just put in your inventory while training. Be aware that this will take one inventory spot which could be used for additional ore. If your attack level is high enough always equip the best pickaxe that you can.

There are currently 8 tiers of regular pickaxes starting at level 1 through levels 6, 11 , 21, 31 41 and 61 for the best one. Both Bronze and Iron Pickaxes can be equipped from the beginning. At level 6 those may be exchanged for the Steel version and at Level 11 for Black Pickaxe. At level 21 players can wield Mithril Pickaxe and at 31 Adamant version of this weapon. The best free to play pickaxe comes from Rune tier and requires level 41. Additionally, players who have a membership can use Dragon pickaxe from level 61 which is the fastest mining pickaxe in the game.

There are also 2 special pickaxes available for members only. Infernal Pickaxe which requires level 61 Mining will smelt ⅓ of your mined ores giving you additional experience to Smithing skill in addition to Mining xp. It shares same special attack as Dragon Pickaxe which gives you +3 boost to your Mining level for a short period of time. There is also Third Age pickaxe which is very similar to its Dragon counterpart. The only difference is the look of the items and source from where you can get it.

With pickaxes you will be able to mine different ores like Iron Ore from Iron Rocks, Rune Essence, Mithil Ore Veins, Copper Tin Ore, Adamantite Ore, Gold Ore, Copper Ore, Tin Rocks, Coal, Clay and others.

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Prospector Outfit

This is a special set from Prospector kit which gives players +2,5% experience boost while Mining in the Motherlode mine. To get this you need to spend 180 Golden Nuggets at Prospector Percy in The Motherlode Mine. If you are willing to train at this location this is a must-have.

Varrock Armour

This one works just as Prospector Jacket from the set before. Additionally while wearing it you have a chance to mine 2 ores at same time (at 10% chance) during mining, which greatly boosts exp gains. You can get this item for completing Varrock Diary - easiest, medium hard and elite.

Mining Gloves

Another useful piece of equipment can be acquired from the mining guild. While digging for new ores sometimes you will receive Unidentified Minerals. Those can be later exchanged for one of three phases of Mining Gloves: Regular, Superior and Expert ones. The last stage of Mining Gloves works up to a Runite ore tier. Although those Gloves don’t give any bonus experience they still boost your leveling by quite a lot. While wearing them player have a chance of not depleting a rock that he mines while gathering resources. So if you get your ore from the vein that you are mining there is still a chance that you will be able to keep mining it. Basic gloves work up to a Gold tier and Superior ones up to a Runite tier. Expert gloves will let you mine more efficiently Amethyst as well.

Questing for mining experience

As in pretty much every skill the best way to start training is by completing quests. As leveling from the beginning is very tedious and dull doing quests is more enjoyable and usually quicker. There are two quests that can easily get you from level 1 to 32. To start off go do Doric’s quest which is a very simple task without any requirements. After that, you can finish Digsite which will take you some time and requires 25 Thieving, 10 Agility and 10 Herblore. If you have those levels getting to 32 will take less than an hour.

Later on if you want to do some more questing you can take a look at Plague City, The Giant Dwarf, Lost Tribe, Between a Rock and Enakhra’s Lament, Making Friends with My Arm. During questing you will visit many locations like Al Kharid Mine Fossil Island Mine, Resource Area, Lovakengj Mine, Lumbridge Swamp Mining Site, Piscatoris Mine, Wilderness, Dwarven Mine, Falador, Karamja, Legends Guild, Barbarian Village and others so make sure to bring some stamina potions for fast travel.

The quickest path to 99

Levels 1 to 15 Copper and Tin at Lumbridge Swamp

If you feel like questing is not for you and want to start doing regular methods from level 1 mining, you can go to the Lumbridge Swamp area, where you will find a good amount of Copper and Tin veins for lower level players. Mining those at low levels is quite slow but you will need only around 100 of them to reach level 15. Keep in mind that during Mining training dropping all of your mined ores will save you a lot of time so do that for maximum experience rate. Mining on lower levels gives a really low profit so ores are not worth banking - you can make money on other methods.

Levels 15 to 75 Iron

Quite surprisingly Iron gives the best experience from level 15 all the way to level 75 and overall best f2p experience. At all times during training, you should find spots that let you stand between three iron rocks to mine those rocks in a triangle. This way you will never run out of ore to mine without moving at all. Those spots can be found for example in Legend’s Guild, Al Kharid and on Fossil Island. The best one would be on the Mining Guild since it additionally gives players an invisible boost of +7 mining levels. Just as with method before you will be dropping every mined ore to maximize experience gains.

Levels 75-99 Granite

This one is quite different since it is pay to play rock and since it is recommended to be only done using the 3-tick method to maximize experience per hour. As it is not that easy to explain you should check out video guides on how 3-tick mining works and learn by yourself how to do it before going to mine Granite. Powermining method can be extremely click intensive but is a way faster method to improve Mining level. 

If you already have got knowledge on how 3 tick mining works you can go to Granite Quarry where you will train to reach max in Mining skill. It is highly recommended to bring waterskins and runes to use lunar spell Humidify since desert heat will hurt you if you won’t bring any protection from that. Alternatively you can take with you hitpoints cape and regen bracelet to outheal damage received. Desert Talisman 4 can be another option but does have some requirements. You will need to mine over 200k ore to get from 75 to 99 so keep in mind that it will be really time-consuming.

Alternative mining methods

Although methods stated above are the fastest in terms of experience rate, they might be not optimal due to click intensity and money waste. Thankfully we have more methods covering other spheres of mining.

Levels 1-15 Pure Essence

If you have completed very short and very easy Rune Mysteries quest which is required for this method, you can be teleported to the special mine where you can dig Runestones. This is very AFK friendly method since your supply rock will never run out. New players often use this method to make first bits of gold on their journey. Banking requires teleporting out to a Varrock and running to the eastern bank which takes some time. If you don’t need this little bit of cash it is better to just drop those runes on the floor maximizing experience gains.

Levels 30-99 Motherlode Mine

This is one of the most common methods of training Mining skill since it is very AFK-able while being profitable at the same time. At lower levels mining there might not look as good as mining Iron but as soon as you unlock Prospector Outfit experience rates rise by quite a bit. There is also an additional location with more ores that can be unlocked by paying 100 golden nuggets. This requires level 72 to do and is worth doing.

Levels 70-99 Volcanic Mine

This is best exp alternative to those who don’t want to do 3 tick Mining at Granite Quarry.  By doing this minigame players can earn a decent amount of experience. To enter you need to have 150 kudos with Varrock museum and Bone Voyage quest completed. You can find it underneath Fossil Island dungeon and if you want to maximize your experience gains we advise you to watch guides as it is not such a simple minigame.

Making profit on Mining

After level 40 you can head to Shilo Village where in the north-west corner you will find Gem Rock. Those can be mined to get various Gemstones from them. This is quite a profitable method since Red Topaz is rather expensive. While mining for gems you should be able to get around 300k+ profit an hour. Keep in mind that wearing Amulet of Glory while mining Gemstones increases the chance to get them.

At level 75 Mining with 100% favor in Lavakengj you can enter Blast Mine. This is a very good method to make money since it allows you to mine ores 10 levels under its normal requirement. So at level 75 Mining, you will be able to get Runite ores which sell for quite a bit. This makes Blast Mine an amazing method to make both gold and experience. After getting to 85 which is a normal requirement to mine Runite you can simply just do that for a better profit in gold and lesser experience rates.

After hitting level 92 you can start mining Amethyst. Keep in mind that mining guild level bonus won’t let you mine these stones earlier but Dragon Pickaxe will. While it isn’t a good experience method you can make some really nice profit on it.

We hope that this 1-99 Mining Guide was useful for you. You can find more tips and skill training guides to other OSRS skills like Ranged, Magic, Construction, Prayer, Hitpoints, Crafting and others here in our Oldschool Runescape Skills Guide!

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