Mists of Pandaria Classic Mining Profession and Leveling Guide

Mining is one of the few gathering professions available to players. This profession focuses on collecting ore, rather than crafting items or consumables. This gathered ore is most commonly smelted into bars and used by other professions, such as Engineering and Blacksmithing to fuel their crafting needs; but the raw ore can also be used with Jewelcrafting.

To be able to mine ore veins you need to have a Mining Pick in your inventory. When you have Mining you will learn a skill called Find Minerals to track and show the location of nearby ore on your minimap. Make sure to keep this up whenever you are out gathering or you will have a much harder time finding nodes.

When you learn Mining from the trainers you will also learn a technique called Smelting. It is a skill Miners can use when they are near a Forge to smelt the raw ore into usable metal bars for crafting. The good part is that smelting ore also increases your skill in Mining too and it can be used to level your Mining quickly without having to seek out veins of ore if you are willing to buy the materials.

Mists of Pandaria brings 5 new Mining materials for players to gather.

• Ghost Iron Nugget
• Ghost Iron Ore
• Kyparite
• Black Trillium Ore
• White Trillium Ore

It is possible to quickly level up through mining without going into the world and harvesting ore veins manually. To do this, you will take advantage of the Smelting ability that comes with Mining, allowing you to melt ores down into bars. Below is a basic outline of the recommended smelting path you can take if you wish to purchase ore and quickly level up Mining.

Skill	Notes
1-50	70× Smelt Copper
50-70	70× Smelt Tin Save for Later
70-90	70× Smelt Bronze
90-100	15× Smelt Silver
100-125	40× Smelt Iron Save for Later
125-135	20× Smelt Steel
135-150	15× Smelt Gold
150-175	50× Smelt Mithril
175-200	25× Smelt Truesilver
200-275	130× Smelt Thorium
275-325	250× Smelt Fel Iron
325-340	90× Smelt Adamantite
340-350	All smelting recipes will be gray at this point, you will have to mine for these 10 skill points, then you can continue smelting
350-375	60× Smelt Cobalt
375-400	Smelt Khorium, Smelt Hardened Adamantite, or manually mine to 400. This is another part that requires you to mine, or spend some gold on Khorium Ore and Adamantite Ore. Choose your path based on how expensive these ores are on your server, and how much gold and time you are willing to invest.
400-425	100× Smelt Saronite
425-475	240× Smelt Obsidium
475-500	200× Smelt Elementium
500-525	70× Smelt Ghost Iron

Your Mining advancement begins by mining Copper Ore found in the low-level starting areas. Once you have reached 50 skill in Mining, head to your local trainer to learn Journeyman Mining, allowing you to progress up to 150 Skill.

Elwynn Forest

Tirisfal Glades

After training Journeyman Mining head out and lookout for Copper Ore, Tin Ore, and Silver Ore.

Hillsbrad Foothills

Make sure to visit your nearest trainer and learn Expert Mining. You are now mainly looking for Iron Ore, Silver Ore, and Gold Ore.

Western Plaguelands

At 150 Skill you obtain the ability to mine Mithril Ore, keep an eye out for any Mithril veins.

Tanaris

Here you are looking for Thorium Ore. Un'goro Crater has a very large amount of Thorium veins, allowing you to quickly level up in this zone. You can also head to Outland at level 275, but it will usually be slightly quicker to stay in Un'goro until level 300.

Un'goro Crater

Here you will be looking to farm some Fel Iron Ore in Hellfire Peninsula. Run along the mountain edges looking for any veins you can find on your minimap.

Hellfire Peninsula

Be sure to check in all of the caves for Adamantite Ore and Fel Iron Ore while flying around the zone.

Nagrand

Be sure to head to a Mining trainer to unlock Grand Master Mining, allowing you to max out your Mining at 450 skill level. Be sure to check the caves while flying around.

Sholazar Basin is one of the best zones in the game for mining ore as it has a massive amount of veins to mine. Use this zone to finish off your Mining skill in a short time.

Be sure to check the caves while flying around and keep an eye out for any Obsidium Ore veins.

Mount Hyjal

Be sure to check the caves while flying around and keep an eye out for Elementium Ore and Obsidium Ore veins. Here you can farm a very high amount of ore if there are not many others farming in the area.

Twilight Highlands

Upon reaching 500 skill, train with either Hao of the Stag's Horns in Paw'don Village (Jade Forest), or Trapper Ri in Honeydew Village (Jade Forest). You will want to also grab these 2 new mining items added in Mists of Pandaria, Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick and Mist-Piercing Goggles before you start leveling your Mining up on the Wandering Isle. If you have Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick in your bags while you are Mining, you will have a chance to get gems, while having Mist-Piercing Goggles in your bags lets you see addition hidden Mining nodes, granting you access to additional ore nodes!

Mining provides you with a unique buff Toughness, increasing your Stamina based on your Mining skill level.

Buff	Skill Required	Details
Toughness (Rank 1)	75	Increases Stamina by 3.
Toughness (Rank 2)	150	Increases Stamina by 5.
Toughness (Rank 3)	225	Increases Stamina by 7.
Toughness (Rank 4)	300	Increases Stamina by 10.
Toughness (Rank 5)	375	Increases Stamina by 24.
Toughness (Rank 6)	450	Increases Stamina by 48.
Toughness (Rank 7)	525	Increases Stamina by 120.
Toughness (Rank 8)	600	Increases Stamina by 480.

Mining is just one of the many professions you may choose to level in Mists of Pandaria Classic. To learn more about the other options available, we recommend checking out our overviews of all professions and their unique bonuses below.