MoP Classic Mining & Smelting Leveling Guide 1-600

This MoP Classic Mining leveling guide will show you the fastest way to level your Mining profession up from 1 to 600 in Mists of Pandaria Classic.

Mining Trainers

You can learn every rank of Mining from every trainer.

Horde Alliance

Outland

Northrend

Pandaria

Outland

Northrend

Pandaria

Smelting to 525

If you have enough gold, you can skip the first 525 skill points just by smelting ores (you'll still need to mine a few ores along the way). But if you need the ores for Jewelcrafting or prefer leveling Mining by farming, scroll down for the farming routes. You'll probably make most of your gold back by selling the bars, but you'll need a few thousand gold upfront.

Most smelting recipes are yellow or green, so I cannot list the exact number of ores that you will need. These are all approximate numbers below. It's possible you will need even more ores if you are unlucky with the skill gains.

Shopping List

Leveling Steps

Open your spellbook, click on the "Professions" tab, and drag the Smelting spell to your action bar. You can use this to open the smelting window and turn ores into bars.

Skill Notes
1-50 70x Smelt Copper until you reach 50.
50-70 70x Smelt Tin. This one will be grey after 75, but you will need these later. You can still go to the next step even if you did not reach 70.
70-90 Use the Tin Bars and Copper Bars you made to make 70x Smelt Bronze. You might not reach 100, your skill will be somewhere between 80 and 90.
90-100 10-15x Smelt Silver until you reach 100. If there is no Silver Ore at the Auction House, you have to smelt more Bronze Bars up to 100.
100-125 40x Smelt Iron until you reach 125.
125-135 20x Smelt Steel until you reach 135. You can buy Coal from Blacksmithing, Mining or Trade Supply vendors.
135-150 15x Smelt Gold until you reach 150. If you don't have Gold Ore you have to smelt more Iron Ore.
150-175 50x Smelt Mithril until you reach 175.
175-200 25x Smelt Truesilver until you reach 200. It's possible you can't get this many Truesilver, then you have to smelt or mine more Mithril. Make sure to save smelting Truesilver until after you smelt Mithril. So, for example, if you have 10x Truesilver Ore, smelt or mine Mithril until 190.
200-275 130x Smelt Thorium until you reach 275.
275-325 175x Smelt Fel Iron (350x Fel Iron Ore) until you reach 325.
325-340 60x Smelt Adamantite (120x Adamantite Ore) until 340.
340-350 No smelting recipe for this part. You will have to mine a few ores. Mine a few Adamantite Ores or Ghost Iron Ores.
350-375 50x Smelt Cobalt (50x Cobalt Ore) until you reach 375.
375-400 I recommend Mining some Cobalt Ore or Ghost Iron Ore for this part because the smelting recipes you can make are much harder to sell than regular bars (depending on your realm). But, if you can get a lot of cheap Khorium Ore, you can use Smelt Khorium up to 400 or you can also level with Smelt Hardened Adamantite.
400-425 70x Smelt Saronite (140x Saronite Ore) until you reach 425.
425-475 160x Smelt Obsidium (320x Obsidium Ore) until 475.
475-500 100x Smelt Elementium (200x Elementium Ore) until 500.
500-525 70x Smelt Ghost Iron (140x Ghost Iron Ore) until 525.

Mining 1-600 in Pandaria

You can start mining Ghost Iron Ore even with Mining skill 1, but I don't recommend it unless your character is at least level 90. Without flying in Pandaria, farming is slow and frustrating. Even if you're level 90 and just want to sell the ores, it's usually more efficient to follow the guide and mine lower-level ores first.

Until you reach around 300 Mining, you'll only get Ghost Iron Nuggets (10 nuggets = 1 ore). The amount of nuggets depends on your Mining skill. At first, you will only get a few nuggets per node. You’ll start getting actual ore after around 300, and nuggets stop completely at 500. So you’ll end up with far fewer ores overall. In most cases, you'll make more gold and level faster by mining ores that match your skill, but it can vary depending on your realm's economy.

If you still want to mine Ghost Iron from 1 to 600, scroll down to the Ghost Iron Ore section.

Mining Leveling Routes

Make sure that you turn on the Find Minerals filter on your minimap!

1 - 50

Don't forget to buy a Mining Pick from the Mining Supply vendor near your trainer! You don't have to equip it, but you must have one in your inventory.

You will mine Copper Ore in this section.

Durotar

Durotar map

Darkshore

50 - 100

Visit your trainer and learn Mining Journeyman. You will mine the following ores: Tin Ore, Silver Ore

Hillsbrad Foothills

The red zone on the map is filled with Tin everywhere. When you mined all of it, go outside the zone where you can see the little yellowish arrows, mine a few Tin, and head back to the red zone because it's most likely that the Tin Veins there are already respawned.

Hillsbard Foothills mining map

Northern Stranglethorn

Northern Stranglethorn Mining Map

100 - 150

You will mine the following ores: Iron Ore, Gold Ore

Western Plaguelands

Western Plaguelands map

Feralas

Feralas map

150 - 200

Visit your trainer and learn Mining Expert.

You will mine the following ores: Mithril Ore, Truesilver Ore

Felwood and Burning Steppes are the best places to farm because the mining route is just so simple in these two zones. Badlands is also a really good place, but I found more Mithril in these zones.

Felwood

Felwood Mining map

Burning Steppes

Don't go into Dreadmaul Rock. There is plenty of Mithril at the corner of the map; you will just get dismounted if you go into the cave, and it will slow you down.

Burning Steppes mining map

200 - 275

Visit your trainer and learn Mining Artisan.

You will mine Thorium Ore.

When you reach 275, you can go to Hellfire Peninsula and mine Fel Iron or stay in the zones listed below until you reach 300.

Un'Goro Crater

Un'Goro mining map

Winterspring

Winterspring mining map

Master Mining

300 - 325

Visit your trainer and learn Mining Master.

There is not much difference between the two routes. I got roughly the same number of Fel Iron on both routes.

Small Thorium Veins will give skill points up to 345, and Rich Thorium Veins up to 350. If you have a lot of competition in Hellfire Peninsula or don't have a flying mount, I recommend mining more Thorium at the previous zones up to 325.

325 - 350

There will be a few Rich Adamantite nodes in Terokkar Forest that you can't mine until you reach 350. But, they can only spawn in the areas accessible by flying mount, so this is not an issue for lower-level players. (Skettis and the area above Shattrat City)

There are two caves marked with red circles on the map. You should go inside both of them and make sure that you go all the way to the end because sometimes you won't see the Mining nodes from the entrance.

You will need a flying mount for this route, use route 3 if you don't have one.

Alternative route for players without flying mount.

Grand Master Mining

Visit your trainer and learn Grand Master mining. (Requires level 55)

350 - 400

Both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord are great zones for leveling to 400. But I recommend using the "no flying" routes if you are still leveling and don't have a flying mount yet. Lower-level players also might want to skip some of the caves in Borean Tundra (depending on your level and gear).

400 - 450

I think Sholazar Basin is the better zone for leveling to 450, and the route is much easier to follow. But, you can use Storm Peaks as an alternative if you have a lot of competition in Sholazar Basin.

425 - 475

Visit your trainer and learn Illustrious Mining.

You will mine Obsidium Ore.

There is a lot more Obsidium in Hyjal than in Vashj'ir, but there are also a lot more players. Hyjal beats Vashj'ir if no one is farming the zone; otherwise, the zones are similar. If you go to Vashj'ir, you must do the starting quests until you get your underwater mount.

Mount Hyjal

Mount Hyal Mining map

Vashj'ir

Vashj'ir Obsidium Mining map

475 - 500

You will mine Elementium Ore.

Twilight Highlands

Rich Elementium Vein requires Mining 500 and Pyrite Deposit 525, so you won't be able to mine them yet.

MoP Classic Mining (500-600)

Now you can head over to Pandaria and start leveling your Mining up to 600.

MoP Classic Mining Trainers

You can learn the MoP Classic Mining skill from Rockseeker Guo (Alliance) at Paw'don Village, or Stonebreaker Ruian (Horde) at Honeydew Village in the Jade Forest.

There is also a neutral trainer in the Jade Forest: Smeltmaster Ashpaw. You can find her just below the Tian Monastery, in front of the Greenstone Quarry.

Mining Ghost Iron Ore

You can start mining this ore from skill 1, but until you reach around 300 Mining, you'll only get Ghost Iron Nuggets (10 nuggets = 1 ore). The amount of nuggets depends on your Mining skill. At first, you will only get a few nuggets per node. You’ll start getting actual ore after around 300, and nuggets stop completely at 500.

Thanks to a bug in the game, you can still gain skill points up to 600 from Ghost Iron Ore, even after it turns grey

Jade Forest

Valley of the Four Winds

Valley of the Four Winds is the best place to farm Ghost Iron Ore, but it can be a bit crowded because of the Tiller daily quests.

Townlong Steppes

Townlong Steppes is another good spot. It's usually quiet with very few players farming here.

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