Mining in WoW Forever: trainers, leveling and new ores

Mining is a gathering tradeskill: you mine ore from veins and smelt it into bars. Blacksmiths, Engineers, Enchanters and Tailors in WoW Forever all use those bars, and whatever you do not use yourself sells at the Auction House. It needs no gold to get started.

What changes in Forever

• Camp objects. Miners build the Lodestone, which gives everyone sitting at the camp melee Attack Power like Blessing of Might, the Rock Garden and the Molten Foundry. How a campsite works is in the camping guide.
• New bars and ore for the endgame: Legionite Bar, Heavy Thorium Bar and Azerothium Bar, and the ore Heavy Thorium Ore. For now, Legionite Bars seem to come only from Alchemists who transmute Heavy Thorium Bars.
• Scarce materials. While mining you sometimes get Pyrite, Bauxite or Pitchblende on top of the ore; see the post about Scarce materials.
• A free start. An early quest in every starting zone lets you choose Mining for Dummies, which teaches Apprentice Mining.

A good pair: Herbalism, because you pass herbs on the same routes, or Blacksmithing and Engineering, which use your bars. Druids avoid fights with Prowl and Travel Form; Hunters and Warlocks let the pet hold a monster while they mine, and a Hunter drops combat with Feign Death.

Trainers

Three trainers in the starting areas teach only Apprentice. The others teach every rank, once you have the skill and the character level.

Faction	Trainer	Where	/way	Teaches
Alliance	Kelsey Fargo	Northshire, Elwynn Forest	47.2 32.6	Apprentice
Alliance	Sally Swiftwrench	Coldridge Valley, Dun Morogh	28.8 67.8	Apprentice
Alliance	Fanorran Stilloak	Shadowglen, Teldrassil	58.2 41.6	Apprentice
Alliance	Geofram Bouldertoe	The Great Forge, Ironforge	50.4 26.0	All ranks
Alliance	Gelman Stonehand	Dwarven District, Stormwind City	51.0 17.2	All ranks
Alliance	Yarr Hammerstone	Steelgrill’s Depot, Dun Morogh	50.0 50.2	All ranks
Alliance	Dank Drizzlecut	Gol’Bolar Quarry, Dun Morogh	69.2 55.4	All ranks
Alliance	Brock Stoneseeker	Thelsamar, Loch Modan	37.2 46.8	All ranks
Alliance	Kurdram Stonehammer	Auberdine, Darkshore	38.2 41.0	All ranks
Alliance	Matt Johnson	Darkshire, Duskwood	74.0 49.6	All ranks
Horde	Norzsh	Valley of Trials, Durotar	40.6 68.0	Apprentice
Horde	Vartha Rockmane	Red Cloud Mesa, Mulgore	44.2 78.2	Apprentice
Horde	Walter Mason	Deathknell, Tirisfal Glades	32.2 65.8	Apprentice
Horde	Makaru	Valley of Honor, Orgrimmar	73.0 26.4	All ranks
Horde	Brek Stonehoof	Centre of Thunder Bluff	34.6 57.6	All ranks
Horde	Brom Killian	War Quarter, Undercity	56.0 37.0	All ranks
Horde	Krunn	Razor Hill, Durotar	51.8 40.8	All ranks
Horde	Johan Focht	The Sepulcher, Silverpine Forest	43.4 40.6	All ranks
Both	Messana Crestwind	Shen’dar Village, Zephras Isle	44.8 44.4	All ranks
Both	Halavuul Cragwind	Valanaar, Zephras Isle	65.4 80.4	All ranks
Both	Pikkle	Gadgetzan, Tanaris	51.0 28.0	All ranks
Both	Grungle	Powderfuse Port, The Riverglades	77.6 51.8	All ranks

Leveling by smelting, 1 to 185

Smelting gives skill up to 185. Depending on the prices, buy ore or mine it yourself, or mix both.

Skill	Smelt	Materials
1 to 65	130 Smelt Copper	130 Copper Ore
65 to 75	60 Smelt Tin	60 Tin Ore
75 to 100	60 Smelt Bronze	60 Copper Bar and 60 Tin Bar
100 to 125	70 Smelt Silver	70 Silver Ore
125 to 140	35 Smelt Iron	35 Iron Ore
140 to 155	Mining only	No bar gives skill here
155 to 185	60 Smelt Gold	60 Gold Ore

Keep 60 Copper Bars from the first step and 60 Tin Bars from the second: the bronze step needs them. Shopping list: 130 Copper Ore, 60 Tin Ore, 70 Silver Ore, 35 Iron Ore and 60 Gold Ore.

Leveling by mining, 1 to 225

Each vein gives at most one skill point, however many times you mine it.

Skill	Veins	Where
1 to 65	Copper Vein	Any starting zone
65 to 125	Copper, Tin and Silver Vein	Ashenvale, Redridge Mountains, The Barrens, Thousand Needles
125 to 175	Tin and Silver Vein, Iron Deposit, Gold Vein	Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, Thousand Needles
175 to 225	Gold Vein, Mithril Deposit, Truesilver Deposit	Azshara, Tanaris, The Hinterlands

Tin stops giving skill at 165 and Silver at 175, so they are not worth a detour by then. Wowhead has not published a route from 225 to 300 yet.

Every vein

The four numbers are the skill colours: from the first you can mine it, then yellow, green and grey. A grey vein no longer gives skill.

Vein	Skill	Ore	Where
Copper Vein	1 / 25 / 50 / 100	Copper Ore	Dun Morogh, Durotar, Elwynn Forest, Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Zephras Isle, Westfall, The Barrens, Loch Modan and more, The Deadmines, Wailing Caverns
Tin Vein	65 / 90 / 115 / 165	Tin Ore	Ashenvale, The Barrens, Darkshore, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Wetlands, Stranglethorn Vale and more
Silver Vein	75 / 100 / 125 / 175	Silver Ore	Redridge Mountains, Duskwood, Desolace, Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Tanaris and more, Uldaman, Razorfen Kraul
Iron Deposit	125 / 150 / 175 / 225	Iron Ore	Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Stranglethorn Vale, Thousand Needles, Badlands and more
Gold Vein	155 / 180 / 205 / 255	Gold Ore	Arathi Highlands, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Un’Goro Crater and more
Mithril Deposit	175 / 200 / 225 / 275	Mithril Ore	Azshara, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Searing Gorge and more
Truesilver Deposit	230 / 255 / 280 / 330	Truesilver Ore	The same zones as Mithril
Dark Iron Deposit	230 / 255 / 280 / 330	Dark Iron Ore	Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes, Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Molten Core
Small Thorium Vein	245 / 270 / 295 / 345	Thorium Ore	Un’Goro Crater, Silithus, Winterspring, Burning Steppes and more
Rich Thorium Vein	275 / 300 / 325 / 375	Thorium Ore	Azshara, Burning Steppes, Eastern and Western Plaguelands, Un’Goro Crater, Winterspring, Dire Maul

Veins also drop stones and gems, such as Malachite, Tigerseye and Shadowgem from copper. The full lists per zone are in the guide of Wowhead.

Smelting

Smelting needs a forge, found in the capitals and in some towns. Use Smelting there.

Smelt	Skill	Materials	Makes
Smelt Copper	1 / 25 / 47 / 70	1 Copper Ore	1 Copper Bar
Smelt Tin	65 / 75 (green, grey)	1 Tin Ore	1 Tin Bar
Smelt Bronze	65 / 90 / 115 (yellow, green, grey)	1 Copper Bar, 1 Tin Bar	2 Bronze Bar
Smelt Silver	75 / 100 / 112 / 125	1 Silver Ore	1 Silver Bar
Smelt Iron	125 / 130 / 135 / 140	1 Iron Ore	1 Iron Bar
Smelt Gold	155 / 170 / 177 / 185	1 Gold Ore	1 Gold Bar
Smelt Steel	Grey at 165	1 Iron Bar, 1 Coal	1 Steel Bar
Smelt Mithril	Grey at 175	1 Mithril Ore	1 Mithril Bar
Smelt Truesilver	Grey at 230	1 Truesilver Ore	1 Truesilver Bar
Smelt Dark Iron	Grey at 230	8 Dark Iron Ore	1 Dark Iron Bar
Smelt Thorium	Grey at 250	1 Thorium Ore	1 Thorium Bar

Gear that raises your skill

A bonus lets you mine a vein before you have its skill: with +5, a Silver Vein opens at 70 instead of 75.

Gear	Skill
Miner’s Cape	+2
Goblin Mining Helmet	+5
Enchant Gloves - Mining	+2
Enchant Gloves - Advanced Mining	+5

Two more items help without a bonus. Smelting Pants smelts copper, tin, bronze and silver 25% faster. Rockslicer lets anyone, even without Mining, mine copper, tin, silver and iron; it drops with 30 charges.

New recipes

Recipe	Skill	Source
Lodestone	20	Trainer
Rock Garden	140	Blueprint: Rock Garden
Smelt Azerothium	275	Trainer
Smelt Heavy Thorium	300	Trainer, needs a Molten Foundry
Molten Foundry	300	Blueprint: Molten Foundry

The perks of Mining, such as Made of Metal, are on the tradeskills page, and the Legacy perks in the Legacy calculator. The full route of Classic is in the Classic Era guide.