Mining
"I don't know anybody who's just a miner, although I suppose you could make a living at it. Almost all the miners I know are really Blacksmiths, and almost all the Blacksmiths I know do their own mining, or at least can do their own mining if they need to."
"You have to know how to take care of yourself if you're going to mine for yourself, for the best are deposits are found far beyond the city walls, and no guard will hear you if you cry out. The mining sites themselves are pretty safe, because the miners look out for one another, but brigands and thieves like to haunt the routes between the mines and the forges, preying on anyone who's foolish enough to travel alone."
- Tobias of Minoc
Mining
Mining is a basic, and fairly essential skill for an aspiring blacksmith or, to a slightly lesser degree, tinker. To begin mining you will need tools, these can be either picks or shovels and can be used from the backpack, they do not need to be equipped:
- A shovel or pickaxe bought from a Tinker NPC has approximately 50 uses before it breaks.
- An exceptional shovel or pickaxe made by a player using tinkering skill has approximately 100 uses.
Mining is then used to gather ingots which can be used by the skills Blacksmithy and Tinkering. Mining is performed by using a shovel or a pickaxe on a rocky or mountainous terrain. It also widens the "dig radius" of a shovel when digging for treasure chests on decoded treasure maps. Grandmaster Carpenters that have learned Masonry also use mining to gather high quality granite, that is used to sculpt stone furniture and decoration.
Training
Before training you will need to obtain a bulk amount of boards or logs.
- 0.0 - 30.0: Train from NPC Blacksmith or Miner
- 30.1 - 100.0: Practical use - mine ore, and smelt ore
Ore Types and Ingots
| Mining Skill | Ores |
|---|---|
| 0.00 | Iron |
| 65.0 | Dull Copper |
| 70.0 | Shadow Iron |
| 75.0 | Copper |
| 80.0 | Bronze |
| 85.0 | Gold |
| 90.0 | Agapite |
| 95.0 | Verite |
| 99.0 | Valorite |
| Ore to Ingot Conversion | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ore | Weight | Ingots Produced (Successful Smelt) |
| Two Small Ore Piles (1 is not enough to smelt) |
2 * 2 Stones | 1 Ingot |
| Medium Ore Pile | 7 Stones | 1 Ingot |
| One Large Ore Pile | 12 Stones | 2 Ingots |
Special Tools
- Prospector's Tool - This tool is obtained by blacksmiths turning in Bulk Order Deeds. Using a prospector's tool will allow you to extract ore one color higher than that normally yielded by a vein. For instance, if you use it on a verite vein, you will obtain valorite. To use this item dig once with the shovel/pickaxe, use the tool on the ore vein then dig normally to empty the spot.
- Gargoyle's Pickaxe - This tool is obtained by blacksmiths turning in Bulk Order Deeds. Using a gargoyle’s pickaxe boosts the ore vein by one level and will stack with the same effect from a prospectors tool. For example an agapite vein can be raised to verite with a prospector tool and then to valorite with a gargoyle pickaxe. This method is not without significant risk as the item also has a chance to spawn an Ore Elemental of the same color as the ore you are currently mining.
- Blacksmith Gloves of Mining - These gloves can be obtained by turning in Bulk Order Deeds, come in 3 types and, when worn, will boost your mining skill. This is especially helpful when smelting, however when mining colored ore only real skill affects your ability to find the higher types.
- Leather Blacksmith Gloves of Mining +1 mining
- Studded Blacksmith Gloves of Mining +3 mining
- Ringmail Blacksmith Gloves of Mining +5 mining
- Stone Mining Pickaxe - This tool can be purchased from the Obsidian vendor in front of Lord British's castle for 5,000 Obsidian coins.
Notes
Mining skill is not required when digging up treasure found in treasure maps
Some players will lock their mining skill at 64.9 to only mine iron ore, maximizing the amount of iron ingots possible
Blacksmith NPCs sell iron ingots up to 999
A smith cannot use the colored ingots unless he has the required skill for that color, meaning your base Blacksmithy skill must be enough according to the mining table above
Smelting, whether ore into ingots or armor/weapons into ingots uses your Mining skill, not your Blacksmithing skill, you cannot smelt items if your base Mining is less than required to mine the ore
See Also
Blacksmithing - Carpentry - Cartography - Lumberjacking - Masonry - Tinkering
