This 1-99 Mining guide for RuneScape 2007 contains everything you need to know about Mining, including the fastest methods, the AFK methods, and the profitable methods with which you can earn a decent amount of RuneScape gold while training. The content for this article was inspired by Theoatrix OSRS's video.
Outfit & Items
Dragon Pickaxe
When you are training Mining, you should always be using the best pickaxe you can. You don’t need to wear the pickaxe to be able to use it. If you reached level 60 Attack and have some OSRS gp, you can use the Dragon pickaxe’s special attack to get +3 Mining level boost starting at level 58 Mining. While inside the Mining guild, you will receive an invisible +7 level boost. This boost will stack with any existing boosts you already have, such as the visible +3 boost from using the Dragon pickaxe's special attack.
Prospector Kit
The Prospector kit which you get from the Motherlode Mine is worth going for if you choose to train in the Motherlode Mine, and the whole set costs 180 nuggets.
Varrock Armour
Doing the Varrock Diary gives you Varrock armour. Wearing the Varrock armour while mining a rock gives you a 10% chance of getting 2 ores.
The Varrock body also works as the Prospected jacket, so wearing Varrock body + the Prospector outfit really boosts your XP per hour.
In the Mining guide, you can trade unidentified minerals in exchange for Mining gloves. The Mining gloves give a chance of rock not depleting. There are 3 sorts of Mining gloves: regular, superior, and expert. The Expert mining gloves work up to Runenite. While these don’t give more XP per rock, it still increases your XP per hour.
Quests
Doric’s Quest - 1300 XP
Plague City - 2425 XP
The Giant Dwarf - 2500 XP
Lost Tribe - 3000 XP
Between a Rock - 5000 XP
Enakhra’s Lament - 7000 XP
The Digsite - 15.3K XP
Quite a few quests in Old School RuneScape give some Mining XP, but there are two quests that I highly recommend: Doric’s quest (1300 XP) and The Digsite (15.3K XP).
Doric’s quest is a short length quest, but the Digsite can take much longer. Doing Doric’s quest and the Digsite will get you through from level 1 to level 32, which saves you a lot of time at lower levels because starting off Mining is very slow.
Fastest Methods
The fastest ways to get 99 Mining are very click-intensive and are not recommended for everyone. Some of the alternative methods that will be shown later in this guide might be more suited for you.
Levels 1-32: Doric’s Quest & Digsite Quest
Power Mining is the fastest way to level your Mining. Power Mining means Mining and not Banking any of the ores, so you have to drop them all. It is fast to do Doric’s quest and Digsite quest. If you don’t want to do quests, you should mine Copper ore or Tin ore from level 1 to level 15.
Levels 1-15: Copper ore or Tin ore
XP/H: 5K-10K
RSGP/H: Drop Ores
Total profit: N/A
Total Ores: 138
Total time: 15 mins
Items needed: Iron Pickaxe, Steel Pickaxe, Black Pickaxe
Locations: Lumbridge Swamp, Al-Kharid Mine, Dwarven Mine, and the South-east Varrock mine.
Levels 15-75: Iron Ore (3 Rock area)
XP/H: 25K-65K+
RSGP/H: Drop Ores
Total Profit: N/A
Total Ores: 34,515
Total time: 15 mins
Items needed: Pickaxes up to Dragon (or Rune)
Iron is the fastest training method to level 75. You should always be training at a location where there are three Iron rocks in a triangle. Below are the places that have a three-rock area in the game:
Legends’ Guild
Mining Guild
Lovakengj mine
Piscatoris mine
Al-Kharid Mine
Fossil Island
Resource Area (level 51 Wildy)
*Some spots have 2 three-rock areas
While mining Iron, you should have the Varrock armour equipped because it will increase your XP per hour.
At level 15, you can get 30K XP/H, but once you reach above level 60, your XP per hour will be 60K-70K and even higher if you are mining in the Mining Guild. When you are doing this at the three-rock area in the Mining guild, it will give you +7 Mining boost, which will speed up your XP rates.
Levels 75-99: 3tick Granite quarry
XP/H: 70K-120K
RSGP/H: Drop Ores
Total Profit: N/A
Total Ores: 200K+
Time (75-99): 160 hours
Items needed: Rune or Dragon pickaxe, Waterskins or Desert talisman 4, Varrock armour
Location: East of Nardah (Al-Kharid Desert), South of Bandit Camp
This is extremely click intensive, but it is the fastest way to train Mining and you can get 120K XP/H with 99 Mining. At lower levels, you will be able to get under 100K XP/H, but it is still faster than any other Mining method.
Since the Quarry is in the desert, you’ll need some sort of desert protection so that you don’t get damaged by the heat. The Desert Amulet 4 makes you immune to all the desert heat, or you can bring Waterskins with the Lunar spell humidify to fill them up.
Alternatively, if you have 99 Hitpoints, you can wear a Hitpoints cape and a Regen bracelet which will heal the damage you take from the desert.
In-depth 3-tick Mining Guide (Quarry/Iron)
AFK/Alternative Methods
For lower level players, there are some AFK methods.
Levels 1-15: Rune Essense (AFK)
XP/H: 5K
RSGP/H: Drop Ores
Total Profit: N/A
Total Ores: 482
Items needed: Iron/Steel/Black Pickaxe
Location: Teleport from Aubury after Rune Mysteries quest
After you do Rune Mysteries, you can start Mining Rune essence. They give very low XP each, but they only require level 1 Mining.
If you click on the Rune essence rock once, you’ll automatically mine a full inventory, which means you’ll get 140 XP per inventory, and you can AFK for 2 minutes. So Rune essence is a great option for low levels that are playing on mobile at work or for people that are doing homework while they train.
Levels 30-99: Motherlode Mine
XP/H: 13K-50K
RSGP/H: 20K-150K
Total Profit: 70M+
Total Dirt: 210K
Items needed: Pickaxes up to Dragon (or Rune)
Location: Dwarven Mines - next to the Mining Guild
From level 30 to 99, the most AFK method you can do is the Motherlode mine. Mining in the Motherlode is a very common way to get 99 Mining. The XP rates at Motherlode mine are much slower, and the maximum XP rate is just over 50K an hour at level 99 Mining. At low levels, you can get 15K XP/H, but as you level up and unlock the Prospector Outfit, you XP will get a decent boost.
At level 72 Mining, you can pay 100 Golden nuggets to be granted permission to mine in the upper level of the mine, and there have better ore veins that last longer than the ones of the lower level, so that makes your mining more AFK. Dropping all the pay-dirt is faster XP but at higher Mining levels, you’re far better off putting your pay-dirt in getting some rewards because you can make very decent money getting to 99.
Levels 70-99: Volcanic Mine
XP/H: 60K-90K+
Items needed:
Dragon or Rune Pickaxe
Prayer Bonus Armour
Regen+Hitpoints Cape
Food & Numulite
Other Requirements: 150 Kudos & Bone Voyage
Location: Underneath Fossil Island Volcano
This is a method that a lot of players choose to do since it’s far more enjoyable than the Quarry and it gives the second best Mining XP rates in the game.
You need level 50 Mining to start with 150 Kudos at the Varrock Museum, but it is highly recommended to start at level 70.
With a decent team, you can get up to 90K XP/H at a high Mining level. But if you want to take one step further, players can use Alt accounts to boost their XP to 100K+ per hour.
The Volcanic Mine is on Fossil Island, which means you have to complete the Bone Voyage quest to access to Fossil Island.
Additionally, you’ll take quite a lot of damage in the minigame, so be sure to check out a full guide on the minigame before you start.
Volcanic Mine Solo Guide - 80k mining xp/h
Profitable Methods
Levels 40-75: Gem Rocks
XP/H: 30K-60K
RSGP/H: 300K-700K
Total Profit: 25M
Total Gems: 14K
Items needed: Rune/Dragon Pickaxe + Amulet of Glory (Karamja gloves 3+ perks increase profit & XP)
Location: Shilo Village (must have finished quest)
Recently, with the Revenant cave updates, Red topaz gems are now over 5,000 OSRS gold each. There is a Bank deposit box nearby so that you can use it to store all of your gems. It is not recommended to go past level 75 using this method because the next method that will be shown later is more profitable and faster XP per hour.
Wearing an Amulet of glory while mining any rock will increase the chance of getting a gem. So whenever you’re training at Gem rocks, you should always be wearing an Amulet of glory.
There is also a downstairs portion of the Shilo Village gem mine which you can access after you do the Hard Karamja Diary task. The gem mines are not that packed and there is usually a free world of the upstairs area.
Levels 75-99: Blast Mine
XP/H: 50K-70K
RSGP/H: +400K
Total profit: +120M OSRS gold
Location: Lovakengj house in Zeah (xeric’s talisman)
Items needed: Dynamite, Rune/Dragon Pickaxe
Requirement: +100% favour with Lovakengj house
At level 75 Mining, with 100% Lovakengj favour, you have access to Blast Mine which allows you to get ores that are 10 levels above your Mining level. So at level 75, you should start this minigame and obtaining Runite ore. Without Runite ore involved, you’ll get very low XP rates and profit, making the Blast Mine not worth doing.
You can use the Dragon pickaxe special attack to boost to level 75 then you’ll have a chance of getting level 85 rocks, but this is temporary.
The profit rates compared to Gem rocks are a lot better. At higher Mining levels you can earn up to 700K Old School RuneScape gold and 70K XP per hour, making it one of the best and most viable training methods in the game. Keep in mind that this is very click intensive as well, somewhere similar to Granite. The main difference is that you are exchanging the better XP rates of Granite for some money per hour.
Levels 85-99: Runite Ore
XP/H: 5K-15K
RSGP/H: +400K
Total profit: 900M OSRS coins
Items needed: Rune/Dragon Pickaxe (Varrock armour 4 helps)
Location: Heroes’ Guild, Mining Guild, Myths’ Guild, Mor Ul Rek, Wilderness
The next method unlocked at level 85 is just simply mining Runite ore. Recently they’ve been a few additions to the game with new Runite rocks and now the Myths’ Guild has Runite rocks. The new inferno area also has a set of 3 Runite rocks. There are other locations in the Wilderness to mine Rune, but those are not suggested whatsoever. The XP rates here are horrendous but the total profit is insane.
Levels 92-99: Amethyst (semi AFK)
XP/H: 20K
RSGP/H: +300K
Total Profit: 100M OSRS gold
Items needed: Rune/Dragon Pickaxe
Location: Mining Guild
Although the XP per hour is not very high, this is a great method for Alt accounts or for people that want some semi AFK Mining training.
The Mining guild +7 boost doesn’t allow you to mine Amethyst at level 85, however, the Dragon pickaxe special attack does work for mining them.
Summary
Fastest Methods
Levels 1-15: Copper & Tin
Levels 15-75: Iron Ore
Levels 75-99: Granite (3t)
Alternative Methods
Levels 1-15: Rune Essense (AFK)
Levels 30-99: Motherlode Mine
Levels 70-99: Volcanic Mine
Profitable Methods
Levels 50-75: Gem Rocks
Levels 75-99: Blast Mine
Levels 85-99: Runite Ore
Levels 92-99: Amethyst
The two fastest methods in the game are Granite and Volcanic Mine. Granite is very click intensive and a little faster than the Volcanic Mine, but Volcanic Mine provides a lot more profit in the long run.
For AFK training, you can do low level Rune Essense mining and move on to the Motherlode Mine for some decent AFK XP.
For profit, Gem Rocks are decent XP and pretty good money at this point in time. The Blast Mine is great money and XP. The Runite Ore is the most profitable way all the way to level 99 but not the fastest XP per hour.
Should you need other RuneScape money making guides, be sure to head over to our RS news page. We have some low level money making methods for players to earn RuneScape 3 gold and a 1-99 Construction guide for you to train the skill of Construction in OSRS with the fastest or the cheapest method.
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