WoW Mining Guide

This guide was developed to help you in speed leveling Mining. It has several sections depending on your current Mining level. Each one includes the short description of nodes you should collect and maps of the best routes. These routes will help you to level Mining as quick as possible. It can be used both as alliance mining guide and horde mining guide.

When you are going to field make sure your "Find Minerals" ability is on. It will mark locations of all ore nodes herbs on your minimap. Remember to smelt all non–gray ore every time you will be near the anvil. This will decrease leveling time greatly. You can try to sell smelt bars at AH but be aware of flooding the market.

Don't forget to install "Gatherer" add–on – it's a must–have for any gathering profession. This addon will store locations of every node you've found and display it on your map. There is also a great HUD ability which make following optimal gathering routes much simpler. You may also want to use GathererDB – a database which already contains all nodes' locations.

The best profession pairs for Mining are blacksmithing and jewelcrafting. They both use ore you collect or bars you smelt.

Leveling Mining 1–65

Learn Apprentice Mining. Buy Mining Pick.

At these levels you should search for copper veins. All races are starting the game in the different locations so I've developed maps for all of them.

Leveling Mining 65–125

Learn Journeyman Mining. Smelt all ore you have – it will give you some skill ups.

At these levels you will search for tin and silver veins. The best zones to search for are The Barrens and Wetlands. Other zones you may give a look: Ashenvale and Redridge Mountains.

Leveling Mining 125–175

Learn Expert Mining. Smelt all ore you have (do not smelt gray ore) – it will give you some skill ups.

At these levels you will search for iron and gold veins. The best zones to search for are Arathi Highlands and Thousand Needles. Don't miss caves – they will have the veins almost every time you enter it. Another great zone for this bracket is Stranglethorn Vale. But the major part of its route contains mobs. If you don't mind grinding while leveling mining – you can take a look at it.

Leveling Mining 175–250

When you hit 200 you should visit a nearest mining trainer and learn Artisan Mining. Smelt all ore you have (do not smelt gray ore) – it will give you some skill ups.

Now your targets are Mithril and Truesilver veins. The best zones to level up at this bracket are The Hinterlands, Badlands and Tanaris. Many people say that Tanaris is the best one but it's up to you to choose.

Leveling Mining 250–300

Smelt all ore you've gathered before (except gray ore) – it should give you some skill ups. Now we should go to field and hunt for Thorium. The rich Thorium Deposit requires skill level 275.
The zones to visit at these levels: Un'Goro Crater (go down into the Slithering Scar for extra nodes), Winterspring (the bottom part of zone has many thorium nodes, but it's also full of lvl 60 elite mobs – don't visit it until you are high–level) and Silithus (the areas marked in blue are complex tunnel systems – you can drop into it for more thorium). Maps:

Un'Goro Crater mining map
Winterspring mining map
Silithus mining map

Leveling Mining 300–325

Learn Master Mining. Smelt all ore you have – it will give you some skill ups.
Now we move to Outland and should search for Fel Iron veins. The best zone is Hellfire Peninsula. If you will have troubles with some areas crowded with mobs – you can just avoid them. Fel Iron could bring you up to 375, so if you don't want to go to Nargand – you can stay here. Hellfire Peninsula mining route:

Leveling Mining 325–350

Smelt all ore you've gathered at previous step (except the gray ore).
Now you will target Adamantite. The best zone for Adamantite gathering is Nagrand. You should have skill level 350 to use Rich Adamantite veins so you may want to stay at previous step up to 350. Nagrand map:

Leveling Mining 350–400

Now it's time to move to Northrend and learn Grand Master Mining. Smelt all ore you have – it should give you some skill ups.
At this bracket you will search for Cobalt, Rich Cobalt nodes require skill level 375. The best zone for Cobalt gathering is Howling Fjord, you can also want to visit Zul'Drak for some extra rich cobalt nodes.

Leveling Mining 400–450

Rich Cobalt can bring you up to 450 but the leveling will be faster if you will move to Sholazar Basin after 400.
This zone is a mining heaven – it has a simple route and many mining nodes. But it may be a little bit overcrowded at some servers.
You should search for Saronite, Rich Saronite nodes require skill level 425. Sometimes you will find Titanium nodes which require skill level 450 to gather. After reaching 425 skill you may prefer to move to next section of guide and start gathering of Obsidium ore.

Leveling Mining 450–525

Learn Illustrious Grand Master Mining.
First you will need to rise you mining skill up to 475 by searching for Obsidium deposits in Mount Hyjal.
Mount Hyjal mining map

After reaching 475 skill you should move to gathering Elementium. The best places to gather this metal are Twilight Highlands and Deepholm. In Twilight Highlands you will eventually find Rich Elementium veins which require 500 skill to mine and Pyrite deposits which require 525 skill.
Twilight Highlands mining map
Deepholm mining map

Leveling Mining up to 525 by smelting only

If you want to save some time and have enough gold to buy a lot of ore from AH you can use this part of guie for power leveling mining.
This method almost doesn't include any gathering – you can hit 525 by mainly smelting metal bars.

Ore Mining requirements table

This table display different ore's skill requirements (which level you need to mine it).

Mining trainers