World of Warcraft/Professions/Mining

In mining, a character mines some common real-world type ores such as copper, tin, silver and gold, but also other mythical ores. The miner can also gather gems that are very valuable and types of stone. These precious materials can be mined in most metal resource nodes (deposits or veins). A miner also learns how to smelt the ore (Smelting subskill), which they collect into pure bars of whichever metal they smelted. The miner can sell these goods, for some of the highest prices of any raw materials in the World of Warcraft. The complementary professions for mining are blacksmithing, engineering, and jewelcrafting. Those three crafting professions all use the raw materials gathered by miners.

Before the Burning Crusade and the Jewelcrafting subskill of Prospecting, mining was the only profession source of gems, but since Prospecting has a much higher return rate of gems it has become the primary source of gems with mining mostly just supplying the ore used by Prospecting.

Getting Started
To begin your profession in mining you first need to find a mining trainer. When you have found a mining trainer, train basic mining. What you need now is a mining pick. A mining pick can be found at trade merchants.

Now that you have the mining skill and a mining pick you are ready to begin collecting ore from mineral veins. To find a mineral vein click on your abilities tab and activate Find Minerals. The mineral veins will now appear on your minimap as yellow dots. Seek the minerak veins out. Have Find Minerals active as much as possible.

Types of Minerals
There are many different types of mineral veins found in the World of Warcraft. All types of minerals are listed here and the mining skill you must have to gather that sort of mineral.

Copper: 1                Tin: 65

Incendicite:** 65        Silver: 75

Bronze:* 75              Iron: 125

Indurium:** 150          Gold: 155

Lesser Bloodstone:** 155 Steel:* 165

Mithril: 175             Truesilver: 230

Dark Iron: 230           Small Thorium: 245

Rich Thorium: 275


 * Bronze is created by combining Copper and Tin. One Copper bar and one Tin bar creates two Bronze bars. Steel is created by combing one Iron and one Coal.*
 * These ores are for quests only but they can be traded to other players that want to do the quest, sold on the auction house, or used to skill up your mining. Incendicite is available in Wetlands, Indurium in Uldaman, and Lesser Bloodstone can be found in Arathi Highlands.**

Here is a list of the minerals and where they can be found

Copper Vein:

Alterac Mountains, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Desolace, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Duskwood, Elwynn Forest, Hillsbrad Foothills, Loch Modan, Mulgore, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Thunder Bluff, Tirisfal Glades, Westfall, Wetlands

Tin Vein:

The Barrens, Silverpine Forest, Darkshore, Ashenvale, Duskwood, Thousand Needles, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Loch Modan, Arathi Highlands, Wetlands, Stonetalon Mountains, Westfall, Alterac Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas

Silver Vein:

Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Badlands, Darkshore, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbad Foot hills, Loch Modan, redridge Mountains, Searing Gorge, Silverpine Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Barrens, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Westfall, Wetlands

Iron Deposit:

Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Badlands, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Wetlands

Gold Vein:

Alterac Mountains, Alterac Valley, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Azshara, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, Wetlands, Winterspring

Mithril Deposit:

Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Azshara, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring

Truesilver Deposit:

Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Azshara, Badlands, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Stonetalon Mountains, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Thousand Needles, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring

Dark Iron Deposit:

Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, Blackrock Depths, The Molten Core

Small Thorium Vein:

Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Searing Gorge, Silithus, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring

Rich Thorium Vein:

Azshara, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring

Using a Forge
You can also smelt your ore to make metal bars used mainly for creating armor, weapons and other items created through the blacksmithing and engineering professions. To use a forge you need to find one. a Forge is mainly found in cities and main towns. When you've found a forge walk to it until your near it. Then in your abilities tab choose Smelting and start to smelt your ore into valuable metal bars. There are different recipes to choose from. To learn new recipes you have to go to your mining trainer and learn new recipes for different types of ore.