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Due to an update, this article may be out of date.
Reason: Mining was reworked in an update released 07 January 2019.
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This article is about members' methods of training the Mining skill. For non-members methods of training Mining, see Free-to-play Mining training.

Introduction[]

Mining cape (t) equipped
Mining master cape equipped

This guide describes the most effective pay-to-play methods to train the Mining skill. The experience rate estimates in this guide assume that the best possible pickaxe is being used for the stated Mining level and do not incorporate the use of any experience boosting items or bonus experience. They also assume that players do not bank the ores that they obtain. Banking ores decreases the amount of experience players can gain per hour and, as most ores are not very valuable, is usually not worth the time taken from Mining training. Players using the Evolution of Combat mode can drop ores by adding the ore to their action bar and pressing the associated keybind to drop the ore. As opposed to dropping items directly from the inventory using their right-click drop option, dropping ores via the action bar does not interrupt mining.

Mining is a gathering skill which typically involves collecting ores from different types of ore rock; ore rocks are often found in groups at mining sites. Players can also occasionally obtain uncut sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds while mining. A pickaxe is required when mining. Levelling up the Mining skill increases the rate at which players gain resources and experience while mining. As players level up they are also able to use better pickaxes. To gain the best experience rates possible, players are strongly recommended to use the highest level pickaxe available to them.

Pickaxes[]

Dragon pickaxe detail

In addition to Mining level requirements, pickaxes require certain Attack levels to be wielded. However, players are able to use a pickaxe without equipping it, as pickaxes held in the inventory or tool belt are automatically used when mining. Once a pickaxe is added to the tool belt it cannot be removed, but players can add a higher level pickaxe to their tool belt if the pickaxe currently stored in the tool belt is inferior to the one being added. Players can add pickaxes which they do not currently have a high enough Mining level to use to their tool belt. If the pickaxe stored in a player's tool belt requires a higher Mining level to use than the player currently possesses, the pickaxe will function as the best available pickaxe at the player's current Mining level.

Level required Image Name GE price Notes
1 Bronze pickaxe Bronze pickaxe 1,456 This pickaxe is already stored in the player's tool belt when their account is created.
1 Iron pickaxe Iron pickaxe 4,343 Has a mining speed equivalent to that of a bronze pickaxe.
1 Dwarven army axe Dwarven army axe Not sold Obtained from Major Mary Rancour when asking for free stuff. It is equivalent to a steel pickaxe and also increases experience gained from mining copper and tin ore by 3XP. Starting at level 2 Mining the dwarven army axe gives a chance that a player will obtain an uncut lapis lazuli when mining these rocks, granting an additional 17 Mining XP. The dwarven army axe cannot be added to the player's tool belt.
6 Steel pickaxe Steel pickaxe 1,887 It is recommended that players continue to use a dwarven army axe at this level to gain additional experience when mining copper and tin.
21 Mithril pickaxe Mithril pickaxe 2,828
31 Adamant pickaxe Adamant pickaxe 5,407
41 Rune pickaxe Rune pickaxe 22,097
41 Inferno adze Inferno adze Not sold Has a mining speed equivalent to that of a rune pickaxe. The inferno adze is gained from lighting all beacons simultaneously in the All Fired Up minigame. Level 92 Firemaking is one of the levels required to complete this successfully. The inferno adze cannot be added to the tool belt.
61 Dragon pickaxe Dragon pickaxe 2,083,178
71 Crystal pickaxe Crystal pickaxe Not sold The crystal pickaxe is the best pickaxe currently available in RuneScape. It can be obtained by players who have access to Prifddinas. It is made by trading Lady Ithell a dragon pickaxe and 4,000 harmonic dust. Players may upgrade a dragon pickaxe which is stored in their tool belt to a crystal pickaxe. Crystal pickaxes can be converted back to dragon pickaxes, but the harmonic dust used to upgrade the dragon pickaxe will not be returned. The pickaxe requires level 71 Mining to use but it is not available until level 75 Mining as an unboostable level 75 Mining requirement is needed to complete Plague's End, which is one of the requirements to access Prifddinas.
81 Imcando pickaxe Imcando pickaxe Not sold An imcando pickaxe can be created for the player by Thurgo, if he is given a gilded dragon pickaxe, 4 imcando pickaxe fragments, a redberry pie and 1,000,000. Players can have their pickaxes, on tool belt or in inventory, gilded by a liquid gold nymph, if one is encountered while mining at the Lava Flow Mine after previously having obtained all components of the golden mining suit. The dwarven army axe, sacred clay pickaxe, inferno adze and Crystal pickaxe cannot be gilded.

Players who have completed the Birthright of the Dwarves quest can encounter lava geysers while at the Lava Flow Mine; upon successfully defeating a lava geyser there is a chance that the player will receive an imcando pickaxe fragment.

When mining with an imcando pickaxe players have a 25% chance of instantly incinerating ores that they mine. Incinerating ores in this way gives the normal amount of Mining experience for the ore, and also awards Smithing experience equivalent to that which would be gained if the player had smelted the ore into bars using a furnace. This effect does not occur when mining materials which cannot be smelted, such as granite. Also players can gain 20% additional Mining experience when mining with an imcando pickaxe, if it is charged with enhancement points. An imcando pickaxe can be charged with up to 100 enhancement points, one of which is used up each time that a player mines something and gains its bonus Mining experience effect. The imcando pickaxe is fully recharged with enhancement points when the player defeats a lava geyser. The mining speed of the imcando pickaxe is equivalent to that of a dragon pickaxe except when mining at the Lava Flow Mine, where the imcando pickaxe's mining speed is increased, meaning that it is more efficient to use a crystal pickaxe when training at other locations.

Augmented pickaxes[]

Augmentor detail

Players with at least level 22 Invention can discover how to augment pickaxes. This allows the player to create augmented crystal pickaxes or augmented dragon pickaxes by using augmentors on crystal pickaxes or dragon pickaxes. Pickaxes stored on the player’s tool belt can be augmented by speaking to Doc in the Invention Guild. At the same Invention level, players can discover how to make tool gizmos. A tool gizmo may be added to an augmented pickaxe to give it perks. The following perks may be useful to players training Mining:

Name Effect Number of ranks
Furnace (perk)
Furnace
Has a 5% chance per rank of consuming a gathered resource for an extra 100% XP. 3
Honed
Honed
Has a 2% per rank higher chance of successfully gathering items. 5
Refined
Refined
Has a 5% chance per rank of preventing a resource depleting when gathering. 3
Wise
Wise
When equipped, +1% per rank additional experience, up to 50,000 XP per day. 3

To use an augmented pickaxe's perks the player must have charges in their charge pack. Use of an augmented crystal pickaxe costs at most 0.31 divine charges from the player’s charge pack per second and use of an augmented dragon pickaxe costs at most 0.21 divine charges per second. This cost can be reduced by researching charge drain improvements or by adding the efficient perk to the item.

The Wise perk can also be put on an off-hand weapon or shield and it will give the bonus experience regardless, enabling players to have two useful perks on their pickaxe in combination with their skilling outfit.

Other useful equipment[]

Varrock armour[]

Varrock armour 4 detail

Different tiers of Varrock armour are awarded on completion of the easy, medium, hard and elite sets of Varrock tasks. Varrock armour is a body slot item. While mining with the armour equipped players have approximately a 10% chance of mining 2 ores at the same time, receiving Mining experience for both of them. Players who have started the Dimension of Disaster quest can complete the easy set of New Varrock tasks to further increase the Varrock armour's chance of mining 2 ores at once. Higher tiers of the armour grant this effect at rocks which have a higher Mining level requirement to mine. The armour's effect does work when mining granite, concentrated coal and gold rocks.

Image Name Ore rocks affected
Varrock armour 1 Varrock armour 1 Up to and including coal
Varrock armour 2 Varrock armour 2 Up to and including mithril
Varrock armour 3 Varrock armour 3 Up to and including adamantite
Varrock armour 4 Varrock armour 4 Up to and including adamantite

Golden mining suit[]

Golden mining suit equipped

Wearing pieces of the golden mining suit gives a percentage increase in the amount of base experience that is gained while mining. There are five pieces in the set: the helmet, top, gloves, trousers, and boots. Items from the set can be found when mining at the Lava Flow Mine. Players have a 1 in 846 chance of disturbing a liquid gold nymph whom can be spoken to in order to gain a part of the golden mining suit. Only one part of the suit can be gained per encounter and pieces are gained in the following order: boots, gloves, helmet, trousers, top. It can take around 3-5 hours of mining to find a liquid gold nymph. If all pieces of the set are worn, an additional set bonus effect is given. If a player has Varrock armour as well as all the pieces of the golden mining suit, then players will receive the effects of the Varrock armour while wearing a complete golden mining suit.

Image Name Experience boost
Golden mining helmet Golden mining helmet 1%
Golden mining top Golden mining top 1%
Golden mining gloves Golden mining gloves 1%
Golden mining trousers Golden mining trousers 1%
Golden mining boots Golden mining boots 1%
Set bonus 1%
Total experience boost 6%

Starfury outfits[]

Parts of starfury outfits could be made by combining starfire outfit pieces with starborn diamonds, available from Treasure Hunter between the 9 September and 14 September 2015. When wearing starfury outfit pieces players deplete Seren stones at a slower rate while mining them and receive the benefits of the corresponding pieces of the golden mining suit, if they are owned.

Golem outfits[]

Magic golem outfit equipped

Parts of golem outfits can be won as a prize from Treasure Hunter. They may also be created from gemstone golem fragments which are received when mining with at least level 70 Mining. The fragments can be assembled into outfit parts with level 80 Mining and 20 Invention.

The sapphire golem outfit, emerald golem outfit and ruby golem outfit consist of head slot, body slot, leg slot, hand slot and feet slot items. When wearing a complete version of any of these three outfits, players gain the following bonuses:

  • Chance of successfully mining a resource is increased by 5%.
  • If a player owns a complete golden mining suit, they will receive its 6% increased base experience effect while wearing a golem outfit.
  • If a player owns Varrock armour, they will receive its chance of receiving two ores at once effect while wearing golem outfit.

Players who won all pieces of the sapphire golem outfit, emerald golem outfit, and ruby golem outfit could combine these outfits' components to form the magic golem outfit. This outfit gives superior benefits to those given by the other golem outfits. In addition to those mentioned above, players gain the following bonuses from wearing a magic golem outfit:

Mining cape[]

The mining cape may be purchased by players who have achieved level 99 Mining. When equipped, the cape gives an invisible +2 Mining level boost. Players who own a max cape, completionist cape, or trimmed completionist cape may use the mining cape on one of these capes to give it the mining cape's perk.

Summoning familiars[]

Lava titan

There are four Summoning familiars available which invisibly boost a player's Mining level while they are summoned. This does not let a player access higher level content, but allows them to mine at a slightly faster rate.

Image Name GE cost of pouch Summoning level required Mining levels boosted Familiar duration (minutes)
Desert wyrm pouch Desert wyrm 832 18 1 19
Void ravager pouch Void ravager 10,751 34 1 27
Obsidian golem pouch Obsidian golem 3,616 73 7 55
Lava titan pouch Lava titan 4,276 83 10 61

Urns[]

Decorated mining urn detail

Urns can be used to gain additional Mining experience while training. When held in the inventory, urns are filled as the player mines ore. Only base experience gains counts towards filling the urn. Additional experience granted from using Crystallise and/or Light Form currently counts towards filling a player's mining urn. Full urns can be teleported away to receive additional experience, equivalent to 20% of the Mining experience gained while filling the urn. Only one urn is filled at a time, though players may own up to a total of 10 full urns. If a player owns 10 full mining urns they must teleport at least 1 away before they can fill more urns. Urns are only tradeable in their (nr), non-runed, forms. In order to use a mining urn the player must add an earth rune to it, this makes the urn untradeable.

Image Name Crafting level required to add rune GE price of non-runed urn Charges gained from Type of ore Experience required to fill Experience gained from teleporting
Cracked mining urn Cracked mining urn 1 908 Ores available at level 1 Clay
Copper ore
Tin ore
Rune essence
437.5 87.5
Fragile mining urn Fragile mining urn 17 1,194 Ores up to and including level 20 The above, plus:
Blurite ore
Iron ore
Silver ore
1,000 200
Plain mining urn Plain mining urn 32 1,463 Ores up to and including level 40 The above, plus:
Pure essence
Coal
Sandstone
Gold ore
Gem rock
1,625 325
Strong mining urn Strong mining urn 48 1,284 Ores up to and including level 70 The above, plus:
Granite
Mithril ore
Adamantite ore
2,000 400
Decorated mining urn Decorated mining urn 59 3,939 Ores up to and including level 98 The above, plus:
Living minerals
Bane ore
Concentrated coal
Concentrated gold
Red sandstone
Runite ore
Seren stone
Salty crabletine
Salty crablet
Alaea crablet
Idol crablet
3,125 625

Players who have at least level 24 Invention and who have completed Nomad's Elegy can discover how to make an urn enhancer. When in the player’s inventory the urn enhancer grants 25% additional experience for teleporting a full urn. This effect costs 20 charges from the player’s charge pack. Assuming the player purchases divine charges from the Grand Exchange, it would cost 804.55 to use the urn enhancer when teleporting an urn. A player mining granite using light form and crystallise with level 99 Mining would gain around 169,500 base experience an hour. If using decorated mining urns the player would gain 33,900 extra experience an hour, with an additional 8,475 experience if using an urn enhancer. This would cost around 43,638.79 an hour in divine charges.

Mining accumulators[]

Mining accumulators can be created by players with at least level 50 Invention, for 25 dwarven currency if the player has chosen a technology tree. They can also be bought from the Grand Exchange for 29,819 each. When held in the player’s inventory a Mining accumulator gains charges each time that the player fails to mine. The accumulator can then be studied to gain experience. 2,500 Mining experience is gained from studying a fully charged Mining accumulator.

Rock-crushing scrimshaw[]

Rock-crushing scrimshaw detail

Rock-crushing scrimshaws can be activated to give player a chance of crushing an ore as it is mined, granting additional Mining experience. Rock-crushing scrimshaws can be activated and deactivated at will, providing that a 10 second cooldown has passed. The inferior rock-crushing scrimshaw gives a 15% chance of crushing an ore to gain more experience and requires level 70 Mining to use. The inferior scrimshaw is tradeable, costing 935,516, and lasts for 3 hours. The superior rock-crushing scrimshaw gives a 20% chance of crushing an ore to gain more experience and requires level 80 Mining to use. The superior scrimshaw lasts for 4 hours but it is untradeable. Players who have level 85 Fletching can unlock the ability to make superior rock-crushing scrimshaws by gathering all 4 fragments of the rock-crushing scroll in the Player-owned port minigame. The superior scrimshaw can then be crafted from 10 ancient bones.

The additional experience gained from the scrimshaw crushing an ore is equivalent to a proportion of the experience that is normally gained upon mining an ore, and varies depending on the type of ore crushed. Inferior and superior scrimshaws award the same amount of additional experience. Rock-crushing scrimshaws do not affect mining at Seren stones, but do affect mining at concentrated ore rocks. Additional experience gained from gold ore or coal being crushed by a scrimshaw is the same regardless of whether the ore is obtained from a concentrated or regular ore rock. If the rock-crushing scrimshaw crushes an ore at the same time as the player obtains two ores at once through the concentrated rocks' double ore effect, then the scrimshaw will grant additional experience for only one ore. While mining concentrated gold rocks players would receive approximately 2,150-2,800 additional experience an hour using an inferior rock-crushing scrimshaw and around 2,850-3,700 additional experience an hour using a superior scrimshaw, depending on Mining level.

Image Name Experience gained from mining ore Experience gained from scrimshaw crushing ore Additional experience gained from scrimshaw
Copper ore Copper ore 17.5 23 5.5
Tin ore Tin ore 17.5 23 5.5
Iron ore Iron ore 35 45 10
Granite (500g) Granite (500g) 50 70 20
Granite (2kg) Granite (2kg) 60 80 20
Granite (5kg) Granite (5kg) 75 95 20
Coal Coal 65 90 25
Gold ore Gold ore 50 65 15

Quarrymaster auras[]

Supreme quarrymaster detail

Quarrymaster auras increase a player's chance of mining ores and rocks by a percentage while they are activated. These auras' effects last for one hour after they are activated. Players may use 5 or 10 vis wax to extend the quarrymaster aura's activation time by 50% or 100% (costing 77,165 or 154,330). This effect must be applied before the aura is activated. Once a quarrymaster aura has been used the player must wait 3 hours before using it again. Quarrymaster auras can be bought using Membership loyalty points. All lower tiers of the aura must be owned before a higher tier aura can be purchased. Quarrymaster auras do affect mining at Seren stones.

Tier Percentage chance of mining ores and rocks increased by Loyalty point cost
Individual Cumulative
1 Quarrymaster aura Quarrymaster 3% 5,000 5,000
2 Greater quarrymaster aura Greater quarrymaster 5% 14,000 19,000
3 Master quarrymaster aura Master quarrymaster 7% 33,500 52,500
4 Supreme quarrymaster aura Supreme quarrymaster 10% 58,500 111,000
5 Legendary quarrymaster aura Legendary quarrymaster 15% 119,000 230,000

Perfect juju mining potions and juju mining potions[]

Perfect juju mining potion detail

When the perfect juju mining potion's effect is active the player has a 10% chance of finding an enhanced stone spirit each time that they mine an ore. While the stone spirit is present it will automatically smelt all ores mined by the player and deposit them as bars in the player's bank, awarding Smithing experience equivalent to that which would be gained by the player smelting the ore using a furnace. Players will also receive 10% additional Mining experience for each ore that they mine while a stone spirit is present. Stone spirits last for 30 seconds after first appearing. Each dose of the perfect juju mining potion lasts for 1 hour. The potion can be bought from the Grand Exchange or created by adding harmony moss (costing 4,060) to a juju mining potion (3) (costing 24,039) with level 80 Herblore.

Image Name GE price
Perfect juju mining potion (1) Perfect juju mining potion (1) 15,421
Perfect juju mining potion (2) Perfect juju mining potion (2) 24,593
Perfect juju mining potion (3) Perfect juju mining potion (3) 21,384
Perfect juju mining potion (4) Perfect juju mining potion (4) 29,720
Juju mining potion detail

Players could also use juju mining potions as an alternative to perfect juju mining potions. As with perfect juju mining potions, regular juju mining potions give players a 10% chance of finding a stone spirit, which will grant 10% additional Mining experience and bank all ores that the player mines for 30 seconds. However, stone spirits spawned from the effect of a regular juju mining potion will not smelt ores mined by the player. Each dose of a Juju mining potion lasts 5 minutes, as opposed to 1 hour per dose of a perfect juju mining potion.

Image Name GE price
Juju mining potion (1) Juju mining potion (1) 1,063
Juju mining potion (2) Juju mining potion (2) 4,100
Juju mining potion (3) Juju mining potion (3) 24,039
Juju mining potion (4) Juju mining potion (4) 18,058

Skillchompas[]

Crystal skillchompa detail
Crystal skillchompa equipped

Skillchompas are items that can be used instead of a pickaxe when mining, giving a mining speed equal to that of the type of pickaxe that they are equivalent to. When equipped or held in the player's inventory, skillchompas are consumed each time the player's character attempts to mine, even if the action is unsuccessful in gaining an ore. If a player successfully gains experience while mining with a skillchompa then they receive an additional 10% of the normal base experience. Each time a mining attempt is unsuccessful a player gains 5% of the bonus experience that they would have received if the attempt was successful. For example when mining gold ore players gain 65 experience for successfully mining a gold ore when not using skillchompas; using skillchompas grants 71.5 experience upon successfully mining gold ore and 3.25 experience each time the player is unsuccessful.

At level 99 Mining using crimson skillchompas at Seren stones gives around 176,000 experience per hour when using no other experience boosting items (compared to 125,000 experience per hour using a crystal pickaxe). In an hour of mining using this method around 2,160 crimson skillchompas are used, costing 2,887,920.

Image Name Mining level required Equivalent to GE price per skillchompa
Cobalt skillchompa Cobalt skillchompa 31 Mithril pickaxe 668
Viridian skillchompa Viridian skillchompa 41 Adamant pickaxe 684
Azure skillchompa Azure skillchompa 51 Rune pickaxe 754
Crimson skillchompa Crimson skillchompa 61 Dragon pickaxe 1,337
Crystal skillchompa Crystal skillchompa 71 Crystal pickaxe 1,443

Crystallise and Light Form[]

Access to Seren spells and prayers, which can be found in the ancient magicks and ancient curses spell and prayer books, is unlocked upon completing The Light Within quest. Level 75 Mining is required for completion of the Plague's End quest, which is one of the requirements needed to complete The Light Within. Crystallise requires level 88 Magic and 6 water, 6 fire, 6 chaos and 6 soul runes to cast. Crystallise can be cast on an ore rock to increase the Mining experience gained from it by 50%, while preventing the player from gaining any resources from the rock. This effect lasts for 30 seconds after Crystallise has been cast; it is not possible to cast Crystallise again until the effect has worn off. If a crystallised rock is being mined only by the player who cast Crystallise on it then it will not deplete until Crystallise's effect wears off. If another player is mining from a crystallised rock then it can be depleted as normal, but the Crystallise spell's effect and timer will be paused until the rock replenishes. With at least level 80 Prayer players can use the Light Form prayer, which enhances the effects of Seren-aligned spells while it is activated, to further increase additional Mining experience gained from a crystallised ore rock to 87.5%. Players will need to consume around 53 doses of prayer potion per hour, with level 99 Prayer, to maintain the prayer points required to keep Light Form activated. Use of prayer renewal potions can help to regain some prayer points. When training Mining using Crystallise players can cast the spell up to 120 times an hour, costing 1,210,320 in runes. This cost can be reduced by using staves to provide some of the required runes. Crystallise cannot be cast on concentrated sandstone, Seren stones or alaea crablets.

Methods[]

Summary[]

See here to calculate how many ores will be obtained during training.

Levels Method Experience per hour Alternative methods
1-40 Rune and pure essence 26,000
40-45 Iron 28,000
45-50 Granite 31,000–33,000
50-75 Concentrated sandstone 45,000-62,000 (at level 61)
75-99+ Granite with Crystallise Around 169,500 experience an hour with level 99. Continue mining concentrated sandstone from level 75-89 Mining. This gives 92,000 experience an hour at level 99.
Players can start mining Seren stones at level 89 Mining. These give up to 125,000 experience an hour, with level 99 Mining.
From level 97 onwards players can switch to mining alaea crablets, which give around 152,000 experience an hour at level 99 Mining.

Levels 1-40: Rune and Pure essence[]

Pure essence detail

At level 1 Mining players should begin training by mining rune essence. Rune essence can only be found at the Rune Essence mine, which players can access using the right-click teleport options on Aubury in Varrock; Archmage Sedridor in Wizards' Tower; or Carwen Essencebinder in Burthorpe. At level 30 Mining members will begin to mine pure essence instead of rune essence, though this gives the same experience as mining rune essence. Pickaxes' level seems to have a negative effect on their ability to mine rune and pure essence: a bronze pickaxe is most effective in mining essence. Equipping a bronze pickaxe will ensure that this is used instead of any higher level pickaxe that the player may have stored in their tool belt. Using a bronze pickaxe the player may gain around 26,000 experience an hour. This experience rate is gained at any Mining level when mining either rune or pure essence.

By dragging the icon for rune or pure essence onto the action bar, pressing the key associated with the slot will automatically drop rune or pure essence from the inventory. Holding down the key while mining essence causes the player to drop rune or pure essence while continuing to mine new essence, removing the need for the player to pause mining to empty their inventory, and providing an uninterrupted flow of experience.

Levels 40-45: Iron[]

Iron ore detail
Mining iron

Standing at this spot, in the centre of a group of 3 iron ore rocks, allows players to mine without moving

Iron-rock

At level 40 Mining players should begin mining iron ore rocks, which start to give more experience than mining pure essence when using the best available pickaxe at this level. Around 28,000 experience an hour can be gained from mining iron at level 40-45 Mining. Iron ore can be mined at the Piscatoris mining site or at the Legends' Guild mining site. The Legends' Guild mining site contains grizzly bears which are aggressive towards players with a combat level of 64 or lower. Both of these mining sites contain groups of 3 iron ore rocks which are arranged in a triangle formation which allows a player to mine all 3 rocks without moving. Choosing a low population world is advised, as population no longer affects the respawn rate of ore.

Levels 45-50: Granite[]

Granite (5kg) detail
Quarry map
Graniterock

At level 45 Mining players can start mining granite rocks. Mining granite gives between 31,000 experience an hour, at level 45, and up to 33,000 experience an hour, at level 50 Mining. Granite rocks can give three different sizes of granite when they are mined successfully: 500g, 2kg and 5kg. Granite can only be mined at the desert quarry in the Kharidian desert. While mining in this area players who have not completed the master quest Crocodile Tears will lose life points due to dehydration from the desert heat every 90 seconds. Players can use waterskins or an enchanted water tiara, if the Dealing with Scabaras quest has been completed, to avoid taking damage from the desert heat. Protective clothing, such as desert clothing, is also useful as it reduces the frequency with which players must use their waterskins or enchanted water tiara or take damage from the heat. With a regen bracelet and desert clothing, damage from the desert heat is mitigated almost entirely.

Since granite's left click option is to drop the granite, it can be added to a players action bar to quickly drop it. Alternatively, players can use signs of the porter to send granite that they mine to the bank (see this calculator to calculate the profit made from using signs of the porter to send granite to the bank). For those who have completed the elite desert tasks, players may speak to Aligra Nite in the granite mining site. He will buy the granite for 20% of the Grand Exchange price. This is useful as it means players don't have to leave the mine, which can increase xp per hour and give a profit.

Levels 50-75: Concentrated sandstone[]

Sandstone (5kg) detail
Concentrated sandstone rocks location
Concentrated sandstone rocks

At level 50 Mining players can start to mine concentrated sandstone rocks. This gives at least 45,000 experience an hour, at level 50 Mining, and goes up to as high as 62,000 experience an hour around level 61 with a dragon pickaxe. The concentrated sandstone rocks are located within Menaphos' worker district or VIP skilling area and so partial completion of The Jack of Spades quest is required to access them. An additional benefit of mining here is that reputation can be gained. The VIP skilling area is unlocked at tier 7 overall reputation: the concentrated sandstone within this area deplete at half the rate of the sandstone within the worker district. At tier 8 reputation within the worker district, the player's success chance while mining concentrated sandstone is increased.

Similar to mining granite, different sizes of sandstone are obtained from the rocks: 1kg, 2kg, 5kg, and 10kg blocks. Since the sandstone's left click option is drop, it can be added to players action bar to quickly drop it. Alternatively, signs of the porter can be used to send the sandstone mined directly to the player's bank (see this calculator to calculate the profit made from using signs of the porter to send sandstone to the bank).

Levels 75-99+: Granite using Crystallise[]

With at least level 75 Mining players will be able to complete the quests required to unlock the Crystallise spell and Light Form prayer. Players should return to training at granite once they can use the spell and prayer to increase the experience gained from mining it. This gives up to 170,000 experience an hour, with level 99 Mining.

Concentrated sandstone (75-89)[]

Players should continue mining concentrated sandstone if they have not unlocked Crystallise and Light Form. Mining concentrated sandstone gives up to 92,000 experience an hour at level 99 Mining.

Seren stones (89-97)[]

Corrupted ore detail
Seren stone

At level 89 Mining players can begin mining Seren stones, if they have gained access to Prifddinas through completing the Plague's End quest. Seren stones are located in the Trahaearn district of Prifddinas. Players can gain up to 125,000 experience an hour mining at Seren stones, with level 99 Mining. Players will receive 20% additional base experience mining at Seren stones when the Voice of Seren is active in the Trahaearn district, meaning that 150,000 Mining experience an hour can be gained during this time. Players mine Seren stones to remove corruption from them. Players can mine a Seren stone 70 times before it is cleansed of corruption. When this happens the Seren stone will temporarily be withdrawn into the trapdoor beneath it, before respawning covered in more corruption. Players gain corrupted ore from mining Seren stones, approximately 1/3 times that they are successful in gaining Mining experience. With level 99 Mining players can gain around 220 corrupted ore in an hour of mining. Corrupted ore stacks in the player's inventory.

Alaea crablets (97-99+)[]

Alaea sea salt detail
Alaea crablet

At level 97 Mining players can begin mining alaea crablets. Alaea crablets are a rare Mining resource that can be found randomly on Uncharted Isles. Uncharted Isles can be explored from The Arc region, which requires completion of the Impressing the Locals quest to access. Completion of the Flag Fall miniquest, which allows the player to claim an uncharted isle and return to it, is also required to hunt alaea crablets effectively. To find alaea crablets, the player must first gain some chimes from skilling in The Arc so that they can purchase the supplies required to voyage to Uncharted Isles. Supplies can be purchased from Rosie. When the player finds an Uncharted Isle inhabited by colonies of alaea crablets then they can claim the island using a claim island flag. Once an uncharted isle is claimed the player may return to it for the price of 3 supplies per voyage: 5 supplies per day can be claimed for free from the box next to Rosie. Up to 3 colonies of alaea crablets may be present on an Uncharted Isle, if the player opts to go on a long voyage.

Rosie's supplies

Alaea crablets can be mined at level 97 Mining and yield alaea sea salt. Each day the player may mine for around 35 minutes at each colony of alaea crablets, gaining around 90,000 experience per colony before it is depleted. The daily cap resets at 00:00 UTC. When selling the alaea sea salt gained from mining alaea crablets players can expect to gain enough chimes to cover the cost of purchasing supplies to go on additional long voyages to find more alaea crablets and thus mine from them indefinitely. Purchasing the supplies cost reductions and commodity sell price increases unlocks from the Waiko Reward Shop, in addition to having a claimed island with as many alaea crablet colonies as possible, will further increase the viability of searching for crablets to mine continuously. At level 99 mining alaea crablets gives an experience rate equivalent to at around 152,000 Mining experience an hour.

The experience from mining alaea crablets can further be bolstered by completing contracts given by Sojobo on Waiko or via a contract contact on an uncharted isle. Players may complete up to 3 contracts daily, and may purchase upgrades from Boni for a maximum of 7 daily contracts. Doing contracts, however, requires chimes to be able to reroll contracts until satisfactory alaea crablet ones are assigned.

Alternative methods of gaining experience[]

Quests[]

See here for a list of quests that grant Mining experience on completion.

Wilderness Warbands[]

Mining supplies detail

Wilderness Warbands is a dangerous Distraction and Diversion that takes place in the Wilderness. The aim of the Distraction and Diversion is to infiltrate a camp occupied by god-following NPCs and loot supplies, which can then be exchanged with Quercus for experience. Players can gain Mining experience if they obtain and hand in mining supplies. Players can gain between 49.5 at level 1, and 4,851.5 at level 99, Mining experience per supply that they exchange. Players can loot up to 25 mining supplies while playing Wilderness Warbands, which grant between 1,237.5 and 121,287.5 Mining experience in total when given to Quercus. Players can calculate the exact amount of experience that they will receive, based on their Mining level and the number of supplies obtained, using the calculator on the Wilderness Warbands article.

Warband interrupting beam

Wilderness Warbands takes place every 7 hours. The Distraction and Diversion begins with a camp appearing in the Wilderness in one of 3 possible locations. A server-wide announcement will notify players of the camp's location when it spawns. Players can also find out the camp's location by talking to Quercus, who is located north-west of the Varrock Grand Exchange. Players must travel to the camp, avoid the sentries posted around its perimeter and sabotage the camp's god's beam, which is found in the centre of the camp. Successfully sabotaging the beam will result in NPCs allied to the invading players teleporting to the area to fight the NPCs guarding the camp. Players can also intervene in the fight if they wish. After all enemy NPCs have been killed, players can loot the tents in the camp to gain supplies. Each Wilderness Warband has 3 tents which contain supplies that grant experience in 3 of 5 possible skills (Mining, Farming, Construction, Herblore and Smithing). Players may loot up to 25 supplies from tents in the camp. Players may gain additional supplies by killing other players and taking any supplies that defeated players may have looted, as supplies are dropped upon death. Participating in looting tents will skull the player and cause them to become attackable by any other player, regardless of combat levels. Players cannot teleport out of the Wilderness while they have supplies in their inventory, and logging out while inside the Wilderness causes all supplies to be destroyed. Therefore, players must escape from the Wilderness by running out of the area. To avoid being killed by other players while participating in Wilderness Warbands players are advised to join one of the dedicated friends chats for the Distraction and Diversion.

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Lava Flow Mine[]

Starting at level 68 after completing King of the Dwarves one can start mining at the Lava Flow Mine to gain the Golden mining suit to permanently increase experience gain by up to 6%. In addition to that, the Activity provides one with a solid amount of mining experience at very low intensities. The outfit amortizes within 70 hours assuming no experience and therefore no interest is generated while obtaining the outfit. At a rate of 1 nymph in 846 successful mining attempts the outfit can be earned after gaining 423.0k Mining experience. Assuming the player has a 50% success chance every 1.8 seconds it takes the player 4.23 hours to acquire the entire outfit. Considering that Seren stones provide a similar training at better xp rates the player should start by no later than reaching level 88 but is recommended to start as early as plausible.

Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza[]

Cabbage detail

Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza is an instanced minigame which can be played to gain renown points that can be exchanged for bonus experience in Mining. There are no requirements to play the minigame and players cannot bring any items into it. After learning how the game works and how to maximise points gained players can expect an average of 170 renown points per game depending on luck and other players. If a player is able to gain 170 renown per game, with each game lasting approximately 12 and a half minutes, 816 renown can be gained an hour. Each renown can be exchanged for between 2.2 with level 1, and 121.9, with level 99, Mining bonus experience; so players can gain between 1,795 and 99,470 bonus experience in Mining an hour. Each day players gain double renown for the first 600 renown that they obtain; therefore 1632 renown can be obtained in an hour, equivalent to between 3,590 and 198,941 bonus experience in Mining.

A game of Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza is composed of 10 rounds, during which players must repeatedly travel back and forth across an arena. Players have 1 minute and 10 seconds to cross the arena and enter the safe area each round. While crossing the arena players must avoid obstacles: wooden barricades block some routes through the arena and jets of fire appear intermittently in channels in the arena floor, dealing damage to any players who travel through them. gorilla guards and cabbage cauldrons also deal damage to players who come within proximity of them. An incremental amount of score is awarded to the player for each round that they survive i.e. players gain 1 score for surviving round 1, up to 10 score for surviving round 10. Players can gain an additional 2 score and have 10% of their maximum life points restored for each cabbage trophy that they find while in the arena. Cabbage trophies can be found by harvesting cabbage leaf patches and wishing-cabbage patches, mining cabbage vein ore and killing the weak, non-aggressive monkey minions. Multiple players can gain cabbage trophies and their health-restoring effects from the same source. At the end of the minigame the player is awarded an amount of renown which is equivalent to the score that they achieved during the game.

Cabbage Facepunch Bonanza arena

If a player does not reach the safe zone before the end of a round or loses all of their life points then they will be turned into a gorilla guard. As a gorilla guard, the player is severely limited in their ability to increase their score. Once per round a gorilla guard can lay a trap in the arena, which awards 2 scores. Gorillas can also attack non-gorilla players; all gorilla guards will receive 2 scores if a player is successfully killed. Gorilla guards do not take damage from obstacles in the arena.

Mining level Bonus experience granted per renown point
1 2.2
5
10 13.2
15 19.3
20 25.4
25 31.5
30 37.6
35 43.7
40 49.8
45 55.9
50 62.0
55 68.1
60 74.2
65 80.4
70 86.5
75 92.6
80 98.7
85 104.2
90
95 117.0
99 121.9

Stealing Creation[]

Volatile clay pickaxe detail

Players can use reward points from the Stealing Creation minigame to purchase proto-tools and volatile clay tools. These items can be transformed into a selection of skill related tools, including sacred clay pickaxes and volatile clay pickaxes. These pickaxes can be right-clicked to grant Mining bonus experience (it is not necessary for the pickaxes to be wielded to gain bonus experience). Players are advised to play Stealing Creation within a group of players co-operating in non-combat games to deplete all sources of clay available more quickly. Once all the clay available in a game has been depleted the game will end early, allowing players to gain reward points in shorter amounts of time.

Both proto-tools and volatile clay tools cost 20 reward points per tool to purchase. When converting a proto-tool the player can choose which skilling tool it will become, but converting a volatile clay tool creates a random skilling tool. A volatile clay pickaxe grants 29,340 Mining bonus experience, while sacred clay pickaxes grant 24,450 Mining bonus experience. A skilling tool created from a volatile clay tool can be reverted back to the volatile clay tool and then converted again to potentially give a different tool. This may be done up to 10 times (the volatile clay tool is destroyed upon the 10th reversion); each reversion causing the tool formed from the volatile clay tool to have 10% less bonus experience available to be granted. Both sacred clay and volatile pickaxes retain their form after being drained of bonus experience, and players can then use 20 reward points to recharge the depleted tools rather than purchasing new tools. Because of this players can maximise the amount of Mining bonus experience that they obtain from their reward points by initially purchasing a volatile clay tool and then transforming and reverting the skilling tools created until a volatile clay pickaxe is obtained. Players can then continue recharging the volatile clay pickaxe, claiming 29,340 Mining bonus experience from it each time they obtain 20 reward points.

Players with at least level 80 in Mining, Hunter, Fishing and Woodcutting will be able to gather clay from all possible locations in a game of Stealing Creation. With these levels players can gather enough clay during a game of Stealing Creation to gain 24 reward points per game that they play. Assuming games of Stealing Creation are completed in around 12 and a half minutes, players can complete 4.8 games of Stealing Creation per hour and earn 115.2 reward points per hour - enabling them to obtain 140,832 Mining bonus experience an hour.

Barbarian Assault[]

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Players can gain Mining bonus experience as a reward from playing the Barbarian Assault minigame. At level 99 Mining it is possible to gain 1,900,000 bonus experience per hour playing hard mode Barbarian Assault waves 6-9, at a cost of 6 Barbarian assault ticket - hard wave 10 per hour. Players may as an alternative gain 1,300,000 bonus experience per hour playing hard mode waves 1-9 without having to pay for the tickets.

In order to play Hard mode Barbarian Assault the normal mode of the minigame must be completed at least once. It is highly recommended for players to reach maximum role levels before starting playing for bonus experience.

Money making using the Mining skill[]

Mining money making guides
Method Profit Skill Experience

Recurring methods[]

Recurring Mining money making guides
Method Profit Time Effective Profit Recurrence time Experience
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