According to one gold-making guide I read, “Mining is maybe the most profitable gathering skill. Why? It’s used for 3 different tradeskills.” That means you always have lots of potential customers for your ore. Some ore veins will drop rare gems, which are in high demand for jewelcrafting and other skills.
I can tell you from my personal experience that mining can be very profitable. I put together a list of all the places in Un’Goro Crater where I found Thorium Veins. Then, I spent an hour or two moving from one of those places to another, looking for a Thorium Vein to spawn there. When it did, which was maybe 1 in 4 places, I would collect anywhere from 1-6 Thorium Ores, Dense Stone, and sometimes a gem or two. At the end of the night, I was able to sell a stack of Thorium Ore for 19 gold. That’s definitely a nice profit. Along the way, I also gained XP from killing the mobs and managed to complete a quest or two for additional XP. So if Thorium sells for as much on your server as it does on mine, and you’re level 50+, this could be a very valuable tip for you.
If you’re going to be serious about mining, get an add-on like MetaMap that allows you to keep track of where you find ore in a given area. Ore spawns in a limited number of locations in an area, so if you mine that area for long you will have a pretty good idea where all the ore locations are. This can make your mining efforts incredibly efficient. You can literally just run from one location to the next picking up ore. Remember, this can be useful even if all you’re doing is loading up on Copper Ore, since there is always someone who needs whatever ore you’re selling. An area that’s rich in Copper Ore is also probably populated with very low-level mobs an thus is pretty safe for you to mine in.
Following is a table of the various ores, the skill needed to mine them, and the most fruitful places to mine them (places whose names are in bold are those other players have recommended are ideal locations for mining that ore):
| Ore | Skill Needed to Mine | Best Locations to Mine | Other Locations With the Ore | Price per Stack |
| Copper | 1 | Darkshore, Orgrimmar, The Barrens, Mulgore, Thousand Needles, Westfall, Elwynn Forest, Redridge Mountains, Loch Modan, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Silverpine Forest, Tirisfal Glades | Wetlands, Duskwood, Desolace, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale Forest | 63-79s |
| Tin | 65 | Darkshore, Ashenvale Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, Desolace, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Duskwood, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, Loch Modan, Wetlands, Hillsbrad Foothills, Silverpine Forest | The Shimmering Flats, Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains | 1.68-2.10g |
| Incendicite Mineral | 65 | The Wetlands (in the cave near Loch Modan) | No other concentrations of Incendicite Mineral noted. | 60-75s |
| Silver | 75 | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Redridge Mountains, Duskwood, Stranglethorn Vale, Thousand Needles, Desolace | Silverpine Forest, The Hinterlands, Wetlands, Loch Modan, Swamp of Sorrows, Westfall, Tanaris, The Shimmering Flats, Feralas, The Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale Forest, Darkshore | 12.4-15.6g |
| Lesser Bloodstone | 125 | Arathi Highlands (near Hammerfall) | No other concentrations of Lesser Bloodstone noted. | 1.67-2.13g |
| Iron | 125 | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Swamp of Sorrows, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, The Shimmering Flats, Thousand Needles, Desolace, Ashenvale Forest, Badlands | The Hinterlands, Wetlands, Badlands, Searing Gorge, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, The Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains | 3.12-3.92g |
| Gold | 155 | Alterac Mountains, The Hinterlands, Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, Thousand Needles, Desolace | Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, Wetlands, Duskwood, Swamp of Sorrows, Blasted Lands, The Shimmering Flats, Silithus, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, The Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale Forest, Azshara, Felwood, Winterspring | 10.8-13.6g |
| Mithril | 175 | Desolace, Azshara, Felwood, Sunrock Retreat, Feralas, Tanaris, Stranglethorn Vale, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Badlands, Searing Gorge, Hinterlands, Alterac Mountains, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring | Eastern Plaguelands, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, Swamp of Sorrows, Silithus, Un’Goro Crater, Thousand Needles, Mojache, Dustwallow Marsh | 6.39 – 7.99g |
| Truesilver | 230 | Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, The Hinterlands, Badlands, Burning Steppes, Un’Goro Crater, Azshara, Winterspring, Uldaman | Alterac Mountains, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, Searing Gorge, Swamp of Sorrows, Blasted Lands, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, Silithus, Feralas, Dustwallow Marsh, Stonetalon Mountains, Felwood | 14-17.5g |
| Dark Iron | 230 | Blackrock Depths, Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge | No other concentrations of Dark Iron noted. | 2.90-3.62g |
| Thorium | 250 (Small Thorium Veins), 275 (Rich Thorium Veins) | Winterspring, Azshara, Un’Goro Crater, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands | The Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Blasted Lands, Tanaris, Silithus, Feralas, Felwood | 13.72-17.15g |
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