Free-to-play Mining training

See also: Pay-to-play Mining training

This guide outlines the best methods for training the Mining skill in free-to-play. Even though mining runite ore with 85 Mining is one of the fastest free-to-play money making methods, profit from lower level ores is very low so it is more efficient to drop mined ores when training and use the saved time for other money making methods.

Pickaxes

Pickaxes are required to train Mining, ranging from bronze to rune. Each tier up decreases the tick interval between rolls to mine an ore and thus it is recommended to always use the highest tier pickaxe available. If the Attack level requirement is met, save an inventory space by equipping the pickaxe.

Pickaxe		Level	Level	How to obtain	GE Price	Weight	Ticks between rolls
	Bronze pickaxe	1	1	Nurmof/Bob/Yarsul (60+ Mining): 1 Spawns at: Barbarian Village ( house) Giants' Plateau Lumbridge Castle gatehouse (2nd floor[UK]3rd floor[US]) Mining Guild building Rimmington Barrel in Ruins of Camdozaal	109	2.267 kg	8
	Iron pickaxe	1	1	Nurmof/Yarsul: 140	259	2.267 kg	7
	Steel pickaxe	6	5	Nurmof/Yarsul: 500	701	2.267 kg	6
	Black pickaxe	11	10	Reward casket (beginner)	1,418	0.01 kg	5
	Mithril pickaxe	21	20	Nurmof/Yarsul: 1,300	421	1.814 kg	5
	Adamant pickaxe	31	30	Nurmof/Yarsul: 3,200	1,676	2.721 kg	4
	Rune pickaxe	41	40	Nurmof/Yarsul: 32,000	18,688	2.267 kg	3

Ores

Ore		Mining
		Level	Exp
	Rune essence	1	5.0
	Clay	1	5.0
	Copper ore	1	17.5
	Tin ore	1	17.5
	Blurite ore	10	17.5
	Barronite shards	14	16.0
	Barronite deposit	14	32.0
	Iron ore	15	35.0
	Silver ore	20	40.0
	Coal	30	50.0
	Gold ore	40	65.0
	Mithril ore	55	80.0
	Adamantite ore	70	95.0
	Runite ore	85	125.0

Levels 1–99

Level 1–10: Doric's Quest

It is recommended to complete Doric's Quest early on for the reward of 1,300 Mining experience, enough to level Mining from 1 to 10. It can be completed immediately by already having the required materials, 6 clay, 4 copper ore, and 2 iron ore.

While the clay and copper ore can be mined easily at level 1, the iron ore requires level 15 to mine. However, it can be obtained easily from the Grand Exchange or as an uncommon drop from dwarves which can be found near the Dwarven Mines to the east of Doric's house.

Levels 1/10–15: Copper ore/Tin ore

Mine copper and tin rocks to 15 Mining for 17.5 each. If banking the ores for Smithing, mine at the South-east Varrock mine and bank in the eastern Varrock bank, otherwise the safest and easiest location are East Lumbridge Swamp mine or the northern Dwarven Mines

• Starting experience: 0
• Experience needed for 15 from 0: 2,411
• Copper ore or tin ore required for 15 from 0: 138 (2,415 experience)
• Starting experience at 10: 1,300
• Experience needed for 15 from 10: 1,111
• Copper ore or tin ore required for 15 from 10: 64 (1,120 experience)

Levels 15–99: Iron ore

The fastest experience from this point onward is from iron rocks for 35 experience each. Maximise experience by dropping ores and from mining at locations where one tile is surrounded by three iron rocks for zero travel time while waiting for respawns. At 41 Mining with a rune pickaxe all three ores can be mined and the player can face back towards the first just before it respawns, allowing for non-stop mining. The only location in free-to-play with one tile surrounded by three iron ores is Al Kharid Mine, which has aggressive level 14 scorpions.

At 41 Mining, the maximum experience rate is around 50,000 experience per hour. Using tick manipulation, experience rates of 65,000–76,000 per hour are obtainable using an alternate account to attack the player with auto-retaliate on while in the Wilderness at the Bandit Camp mine.

• Starting experience: 2,420
• Experience required: 13,032,020
• Iron ore required: 372,344 (13,032,040 experience)
• Banking profit: 51,755,816

Money making methods

Levels 30–99: Superheat Item

Superheat Item can be used at 43 Magic and the appropriate Smithing level to smelt a bar without a furnace. This reduces the need to bank when Mining, especially for coal. Equip a staff of fire, and keep Nature runes and a pickaxe in the inventory for 26 open spaces. If purchasing the ore, bring 26 minus the amount of coal required to superheat the bar, otherwise, mine them as you mine coal. This will allow mining of a significant amount of coal between trips to the bank while producing bars:

Bar		# of bars per trip	# of coal mined per trip	Profit per bar	Profit per trip	Profit to 99
	Steel bar	24	48	158	3,792	20,573,338
	Mithril bar	22	88	358	7,876	23,307,948
	Adamantite bar	20	120	602	12,040	26,129,208
	Runite bar	18	144	1,051	18,918	34,213,203

With an imbued Skull sceptre, the Barbarian Village mine has the closest coal rocks, and banking can be done with the Falador teleport. With a high Mining level, hopping worlds or using a different location may be required due to mining speed and coal respawn time. Otherwise, the time save is significant.

Alternative locations with an abundance of coal included: the Mining Guild, the West Lumbridge Swamp mine, the South-west Wilderness mine, and the Dwarven mine for additional mining locations. With this method, some mines located farther away than others from a bank become more viable due to bank travel taking up proportionally less time.

Levels 70–85: Adamantite ore

Mining adamantite ore can be a good free-to-play money-making method. The best place to mine adamantite is within the Mining Guild, requiring 60 Mining. It has two rocks and ores can be banked at the east Falador bank. Hopping worlds is faster than waiting for them to respawn. Mining adamantite rocks give 95 experience each. See Money making guide/Mining adamantite ore (free-to-play) for more information.

• Starting experience: 737,627
• Experience required: 1,935,487
• Adamantite ore required: 20,374 (1,935,530 experience)
• Profit: 23,857,954

Levels 85–99: Runite ore

Runite mining is highly profitable, but extremely slow and dangerous because the only runite rocks are in the Wilderness at the Lava Maze runite mine. Like adamantite, it is faster and safer to hop worlds instead of waiting for ores to respawn. Mining runite rocks give 125 experience each. See Money making guide/Mining runite ore (free-to-play) for more information.

• Starting experience: 3,258,610
• Experience required: 9,775,821
• Runite ore required: 78,207 (9,775,875 experience)
• Profit: 877,795,368

Other methods

Levels 1/10–14/15: Rune essence

With the completion or progression of Rune Mysteries, players can mine rune essences at the rune essence mine to create runes for Runecraft training later or drop them for faster Mining rates. As for training Mining, this is a slow training method with each rune essence giving 5 experience (a total of 140 Mining experience per inventory) but it's the only AFK-able training method until the player can access the Ruins of Camdozaal after completing Below Ice Mountain.

• Starting experience: 0
• Experience needed for 15 from 0: 2,411
• Rune essence required for 15 from 0: 483 (2,415 experience)
• Starting experience at 10: 1,300
• Experience needed for 15 from 10: 953 or 1,111
• Rune essence required for 15 from 10: 223 (1,115 experience)

Levels 10-99: Crashed stars

Crashed Stars are part of the Shooting Stars Distraction and Diversion. Mining them yields low experience per hour, but is very AFK, as you can mine for multiple minutes before having to click again when it degrades a tier. Expect approximately 8,000-13,000 experience per hour at level 70. In free-to-play it is much more difficult to find stars, so it is recommended to join a group that shares locations otherwise world hopping at locations is required to find stars which can be difficult and take a lot of time.

Levels 14–99: Barronite shards and deposits

Completing the free-to-play Below Ice Mountain quest rewards the player with access to the Ruins of Camdozaal where you can mine barronite shards from barronite rocks. Mining barronite shards gives 16 experience each and mining barronite deposits gives 32 experience each, making this a slower training method than mining iron ore but it is very AFK-able compared to iron ore, making barronites a good training alternative to iron ore and an improvement over mining rune essence. Barronite shards can be used to purchase rewards from Ramarno and while the barronite deposits can be used for Smithing, dropping them is recommended if solely training Mining.

Purchasing the permanent Charm of Mining buff and the one-hour Charm of Boost from Ramarno's Shard Exchange yields higher experience rates.