World of Warcraft: Forever Mining Guide

Mining is a primary gathering profession that lets you collect ore, stone, and gems from mineral deposits throughout Azeroth. This overview covers how to mine and smelt ore, the benefits Mining provides in WoW Forever, professions to pair with it, trainer locations, and the skill needed for each type of deposit.

Mining is a gathering profession that lets you collect ore, stone, and gems from mineral deposits throughout Azeroth. It also teaches Smelting, which allows you to turn ore into metal bars at a forge for use in crafting recipes.

Mineral deposits are commonly found along rocky hillsides, at the base of cliffs, and inside caves and mines. You can gather Copper Ore in early questing zones, then move on to deposits containing Tin Ore, Iron Ore, Mithril Ore, and Thorium Ore as your Mining skill increases.

Blacksmithing and Engineering use much of what you gather, turning metal bars and stone into equipment, crafting components, and useful consumables. Other professions also use the rare gems and mining reagents only a miner can gather; you can keep these materials for your own recipes or sell them to other players to make some gold.

Blacksmithing and Engineering are the most direct matches for Mining because both use metal bars and stone. Choose Blacksmithing if you want to make weapons and armor, or Engineering if you prefer explosives, devices, and other utility items. Gathering your own materials helps cover the cost of leveling either profession.

Once you have learned Mining, turn on Find Minerals to show nearby deposits on your minimap and keep a Mining Pick in your bags. Walk up to a deposit and interact with it when your Mining skill meets its requirement, then collect the contents. Most mining deposits will require several hits to fully deplete the resources available, giving you multiple chances to gain a skill increase if possible. It is also common for groups with multiple miners to take advantage of this, sharing at least one tap on the node each, allowing everyone to get a level up on the same deposit. The table below shows the minimum skill needed for each type of node, and if you are below a nodes requirement you will see an error message saying what skill level is required for that particular ore deposit..

Mining also teaches Smelting, which lets you turn ore into bars while standing near a forge; you learn additional smelting recipes from Mining trainers as your skill increases. Smelting ore into bars can also increase your Mining skill, helping you gain a few extra levels before heading back out to gather a higher level ore. Some metals are made by combining materials rather than gathering a matching ore: Bronze Bars use Copper Bars and Tin Bars, while Steel Bars use Iron Bars and Coal.

Certain items and enchants increase your Mining skill while equipped, allowing you to gather veins before your base skill meets their requirement. For example, a +5 Mining bonus lets you gather Silver Veins at 70 skill instead of 75. Some end-game veins have a requirement above 300 mining in order to harvest them, making these enchants a requirement to gather them; typically these ores are found in raids. Other equipment, such as Smelting Pants, reduces the time needed to smelt certain bars.

Item	Effect	Source
Miner's Cape	+2 Mining skill while equipped.	Miner Johnson Deadmines
Goblin Mining Helmet	+5 Mining skill while equipped. Requires Engineering 205 and the ability to wear mail.	Crafted with Engineering (205), Goblin specialization.
Enchant Gloves - Mining	Enchants gloves to grant +2 Mining skill.	Enchanting (145).
Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining	Enchants gloves to grant +5 Mining skill.	Enchanting (215).
Smelting Pants	Reduces the crafting time of Smelt Copper, Smelt Tin, Smelt Bronze, and Smelt Silver by 25% while equipped. Requires the ability to wear leather.	Gilnid Deadmines

The table includes ordinary deposits, poor-quality deposits, amber, ooze-covered variants, and special quest, dungeon, and raid nodes. Main zones highlight areas with many listed spawns; restricted deposits name their particular location. The colored numbers show the minimum skill followed by the points at which a node becomes yellow, green, and gray. Entries marked Minimum show the gathering requirement only.

Poor Copper Veins give Copper Ore and Rough Stone in the starting zones listed below; these were added with WoW Forever to help players quickly level up their Mining skill early on.

Ore Node	Loot	Main Zones
Poor Copper Vein Minimum: 1	Ore: Copper Ore Stone: Rough Stone	All Starting Zones
Copper Vein 1 25 50 100	Ore: Copper Ore Stone: Rough Stone Gems: Malachite, Tigerseye, Shadowgem Other: Pyrite	Zephras Isle, Mulgore, The Barrens, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Tirisfal Glades, Durotar
Tin Vein 65 90 115 165	Ore: Tin Ore Stone: Coarse Stone Gems: Moss Agate, Shadowgem, Jade, Lesser Moonstone Other: Pyrite	Ashenvale, The Barrens, Redridge Mountains, Loch Modan, Hillsbrad Foothills, Wetlands, Riverglades
Silver Vein Ooze Covered Silver Vein 75 100 125 175	Ore: Silver Ore Gems: Moss Agate, Shadowgem, Lesser Moonstone Other (Silver Vein): Pyrite	Silver: Arathi Highlands, Thousand Needles, The Barrens, Hillsbrad Foothills, Stranglethorn Vale, Redridge Mountains, Riverglades Ooze Covered: Thousand Needles
Iron Deposit 125 150 175 225	Ore: Iron Ore Stone: Heavy Stone Gems: Jade, Lesser Moonstone, Citrine, Aquamarine Other: Pyrite	Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, Thousand Needles, Alterac Mountains, Badlands, Riverglades
Gold Vein Ooze Covered Gold Vein 155 180 205 255	Ore: Gold Ore Gems: Jade, Lesser Moonstone, Citrine Other (Gold Vein): Bauxite	Gold: Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles Ooze Covered: Feralas, Thousand Needles
Mithril Deposit Ooze Covered Mithril Deposit 175 200 225 275	Ore: Mithril Ore Stone: Solid Stone Gems: Citrine, Aquamarine, Star Ruby, Black Vitriol	Mithril: The Hinterlands, Tanaris, Azshara, Desolace, Badlands, Searing Gorge Ooze Covered: Feralas, Thousand Needles
Truesilver Deposit Ooze Covered Truesilver Deposit 230 255 280 330	Ore: Truesilver Ore Gems: Citrine, Aquamarine, Star Ruby	Truesilver: Winterspring, The Hinterlands, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Un'Goro Crater, Azshara Ooze Covered: Silithus, Un'Goro Crater, Feralas
Dark Iron Deposit 230 255 280 330	Ore: Dark Iron Ore Gems: Black Vitriol, Blood of the Mountain, Black Diamond	Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, Blackrock Depths, Molten Core
Small Thorium Vein Ooze Covered Thorium Vein 245 270 295 345	Ore: Thorium Ore Stone: Dense Stone Gems: Star Ruby, Black Vitriol, Blue Sapphire, Huge Emerald, Large Opal, Azerothian Diamond	Small Thorium: Un'Goro Crater, Silithus, Burning Steppes, Winterspring, Western Plaguelands, Eastern Plaguelands Ooze Covered: Un'Goro Crater, Feralas
Rich Thorium Vein Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Vein 275 300 325 375	Ore: Thorium Ore Stone: Dense Stone Gems: Star Ruby, Blue Sapphire, Large Opal, Arcane Crystal, Huge Emerald, Azerothian Diamond	Rich Thorium: Winterspring, Eastern Plaguelands, Azshara, Burning Steppes, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands Ooze Covered: Silithus

WoW Forever adds three new ores and bars for endgame crafting. These bars are most likely used for end-game crafting and new Level 60 crafted gear. Gathering locations for the new ore are currently unknown and will be added as more information becomes available.

• Heavy Thorium Bar — Smelted from Heavy Thorium Ore at a Molten Foundry.
• Azerothium Bar — Smelted from Pitchblende and Coal.
• Legionite Bar — Transmuted by Alchemists using Heavy Thorium Bar and Fel Crystals.

Mining can occasionally yield scarce crafting materials in addition to ordinary ore and stone. Keep the following materials for recipes that use them directly or turn them into another reagent:

• Pyrite — Used by Alchemists to make Sulfuric Acid.
• Bauxite — Used in new crafting recipes, including Enchanting recipes.
• Pitchblende — Smelted with Coal to make Azerothium Bar at Mining 275.

Miners can make three campsite items that grant melee attack power to players sitting nearby. The more advanced items also grow a mining node or provide a special crafting station, allowing more advanced profession crafts and recipes while next to them. Each item requires a nearby campfire, and camping features share a cooldown of one hour. The skill and recipe source for each item are shown below:

Campfire Item	Skill to Place	Source	What It Does
Lodestone	20	Trainer or introductory Mining camping quest	Grants melee attack power to players sitting nearby. Does not stack with Blessing of Might.
Rock Garden	140	Blueprint: Rock Garden	Grows a common mining node over time and provides the Lodestone buff.
Molten Foundry	300	Blueprint: Molten Foundry	Provides a crafting station for recipes that require a Molten Foundry, including Smelt Heavy Thorium, and grants the Lodestone buff.

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