Mining Overview: Perks, Tools, & Equipment

The Mining profession allows players to gather ore, stone, gems, and other materials from deposits around the world. This gathering skill provides materials for crafting with Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting.

What You Get From Mining

The only character perk that Mining offers is Toughness, a passive buff that increases your Stamina by 480. This perk is particularly strong for tank characters. Otherwise the profession is focused on gathering materials from ore deposits for use in crafting.

Mining allows players to see the locations of mining nodes on the mini map by using their Find Minerals tracking ability. Only characters with Mining will be able to interact with these nodes to loot them. Doing so grants a variety of ore and stone that are used as materials for crafting, and sometimes gems, elementals, or other rare items. Many quest objects can also be located on the map with Find Minerals.

Mining also has its own mini-crafting skill, Smelting. This allows Miners to convert the ore they collect into bars, which is required for it to be used in many crafting recipes. Note, however, that Jewelcrafting requires raw ore instead for Prospecting. We have a separate Smelting Guide covering this ability.

Ore

Mining nodes primarily contain ore. Miners can turn this ore into metal bars for crafting with Smelting. Raw ore can also be used for Prospecting in Jewelcrafting.

At launch, all Mining nodes in the game have skill level requirements, and you must have the appropriate skill before you will be able to mine any node. Later in the expansion (Patch 5.3), nodes in Pandaria zones will become possible to mine from skill level 1, but you will loot partial ore instead of whole ones if you are below its skill level. These partial ores can be combined into a whole ore at a ratio of 1:10.

There are four new types of ore to mine in Mists of Pandaria:

• Ghost Iron Ore is the standard/basic ore for the expansion. It can be mined from Ghost Iron Deposits and Rich Ghost Iron Deposits and smelted into Ghost Iron Bar or prospected for gems.
• Black Trillium Ore & White Trillium Ore are mined from Trillium Deposits. They can be smelted together into Trillium Bar or prospected for gems and Sparkling Shards.
• Kyparite is mined from Kyparite Deposits and Rich Kyparite Deposits. It can be prospected, but not smelted, and is used as a material for Blacksmithing and Engineering as well as a currency to purchase Blacksmithing plans from The Klaxxi.

Many lower level Mining nodes also contain some type of stone, but there is no new stone for Mists of Pandaria. See our Mining Nodes Guide for locations and skill requirements for every deposit and vein in the game.

Gems

There are new gems of every color, both Uncommon and Rare, which can be mined from any node in Pandaria. They are primarily used in Jewelcrafting.

Elementals

There are no new elemental items to be mined in Mists of Pandaria. You can still mine elementals from lower-level nodes, however.

Mining Pet

Elementium Geode is a non-combat pet (not eligible for pet battles) that can only be obtained through Mining (or by purchasing it from another player with Mining). It has a low chance to drop when gathering from Elementium Veins, especially Rich Elementium Veins in Cataclysm zones.

Mining Tools

You can carry either a Mining Pick, Gnomish Army Knife, or Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick in your bags for a +10 skill increase. These bonuses do not stack, so there is no need to carry more than one of them. A Mining Pick can be purchased from Mining Supplies vendors. Gnomish Army Knife can be crafted with Engineering and requires at least 350 Engineering skill to use its ability, but its gathering bonuses will work even for non-engineers. The Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick can be found sticking out of the cave wall at Greenstone Quarry in The Jade Forest (entrance at 46, 29). You do not need to have these items equipped to get the skill increase, and they are not required to be able to mine.

Equipment

There are a few pieces of equipment that can be worn to boost your skinning capabilities:

• Mist-Piercing Goggles: These allow you to see additional Mining nodes in Pandaria as long as they are in your bags. They do not need to be equipped or soulbound, and you do not need any Engineering skill to use them. They can be crafted with Engineering after obtaining Schematic: Mist-Piercing Goggles.
• Forager’s Gloves: Reduce the time it takes to mine each node. They are dropped by Korda Torros in Kun-Lai Summit.
• Electrostatic Condenser: Gives you a chance to collect Volatile Air while Mining from Cataclysm nodes. Requires Engineering.

Glove Enchants

There are three glove enchants that grant increased Mining skill, which can stack with the above items:

• Enchant Gloves – Mining: Formula drops from Dark Iron Dwarves in Wetlands.
• Enchant Gloves – Advanced Mining: Formula drops from Venture Co. Strip Miners in Northern Stranglethorn.
• Enchant Gloves – Gatherer: Formula taught by Enchanting Trainers.

Mining Bags

Mining Bags can be useful for carrying around all of the stuff you’ll be gathering with Mining. These bags can only hold Mining tools and materials such as ore, stone, elementals, and metal bars. Note that they cannot hold gems.

• “Carriage – Christina” Precious Metal Bag: Sold by Dawn Radue, the Bag Merchant in Stormwind City.
• Mining Sack: Sold by Mining Supplies vendors around the world.
• Reinforced Mining Bag: Made with Leatherworking. Pattern sold by Kurenai/The Mag’har quartermasters at Honored reputation.
• Mammoth Mining Bag: Made with Leatherworking. Pattern sold by The Sons of Hodir quartermaster at Honored reputation.
• Triple-Reinforced Mining Bag: Made with Leatherworking. Pattern available from Ayla Shadowstorm inside the Molten Front quest hub in Hyjal.

For gems, there are Gem Bags. These can carry only cut or uncut varieties of gems. They’re particularly useful if you also have Jewelcrafting.

• “Carriage – Exclusive” Gem Studded Clutch: Sold by Dawn Radue, the Bag Merchant in Stormwind City.
• Gem Pouch: Sold by Bag Vendors in major cities.
• Bag of Jewels: Made with Tailoring. Pattern available from The Consortium quartermasters at Honored reputation.
• Luxurious Silk Gem Bag: Made with Tailoring. Pattern available from Ayla Shadowstorm inside the Molten Front quest hub in Hyjal.

Racial Bonuses

Unlike most professions, there are no racial bonuses that pertain to Mining in the Mists of Pandaria expansion.