Free-to-play Mining training

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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 money making methods in free-to-play, profit from lower level ores which give better experience is very low, so when training it is more efficient to drop mined ores instead of banking them and use the saved time for other money making methods.

Pickaxes

Pickaxes are required to train Mining; they range in quality 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.

Item				How to obtain	GE Price	Weight	Ticks between rolls
	Bronze pickaxe	1	1	Nurmof's Pickaxe Shop/Bob's Brilliant Axes: 1	52	2.267 kg	8
	Iron pickaxe	1	1	Nurmof: 140	81	2.267 kg	7
	Steel pickaxe	6	5	Nurmof: 500	187	2.267 kg	6
	Black pickaxe	11	10	Reward casket (beginner)	1,400	0.01 kg	5
	Mithril pickaxe	21	20	Nurmof: 1,300	381	1.814 kg	5
	Adamant pickaxe	31	30	Nurmof: 3,200	1,562	2.721 kg	4
	Rune pickaxe	41	40	Nurmof: 32,000	18,734	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	12.0
	Barronite deposit	14	24.0
	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 to go from level 1 to 10. Doric's Quest is one of the fastest quests in the game as it can be completed instantly by bringing the required materials with you when you first meet Doric (6 clay, 4 copper ores, 2 iron ores).

Levels 1/10–15 – Copper ore/Tin ore

Mining copper and tin rocks is the fastest experience to 15 Mining for 17.5 each. If not banking, the safest and easiest location is East Lumbridge Swamp mine, or Dwarven Mines, however saving the ores for Smithing, the South-east Varrock mine can be used to go to east Varrock bank, but it can be heavily populated.

• Starting experience at 0 - 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 to 99 Mining is iron rocks for 35 experience each. To maximize experience when drop mining, iron ore should be mined at locations where one tile is surrounded by three iron rocks, so that the player does not have to travel between rocks or wait for ores to respawn and can pivot in place to access all three rocks. With 41 Mining and a rune pickaxe, it is possible to mine all three ores and pivot back to facing the first one just before the first ore respawns, allowing for non-stop mining. The only two locations in free-to-play with one tile surrounded by three iron ores are Al Kharid Mine, which has aggressive level 14 scorpions (though the mining spot is safe from them), and the Mining Guild, which requires 60 Mining to access (can be boosted from 59 Mining with a dwarven stout). For players wanting to bank the ores, the Dwarven Mine or Mining Guild are good options; note that the bank in the Mining Guild is not accessible in free-to-play, so the closest bank is in east Falador.

From 41 Mining onward, 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 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: 17,500,168

Money making methods

Level 70–85 – Adamantite ore

Mining adamantite ore can be a fairly good money-making method in free-to-play. The best place to mine adamantite is within the Mining Guild, which has two rocks, and ores can be banked at the east Falador bank. Once the rocks are depleted, 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: 21,127,838

Level 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 much faster (and safer from player killers) 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: 874,901,709

Other methods

Level 14–99 - Barronite shards and deposits

Completing the free-to-play Below Ice Mountain gives players access to mine barronite shards from the barronite veins found in the Ruins of Camdozaal. Mining barronite shards give 12 experience each and mining barronite deposits give 24 experience each, making this a slower training method than mining iron ore but but it requires relatively low amount effort and the barronite shards can be used to purchase rewards from Ramarno while the barronite deposits can be used for smithing but dropping the deposits are recommended if solely training mining.

Purchasing the permanent Mining buff and the one-hour Boosts from Ramarno's Shard Exchange would result in faster experience rates.