Mining Mining allows you to find and mine mineral s , ore s , and stone s from resource nodes scattered throughout the world . It is one of the primary profession s . Materials from mining and the items miners can create from them are reagents needed for recipes within other professions . " The Burning Crusade " expansion was the first to introduce several mobs that are capable of being mined . See Ore skinning for a general definition , and Mineable Mobs for a list . Mining pointers : For other articles related to Mining , see the . Mining in Legion . " Legion " - level players may learn mining and raise it to cap all within the zones of the Broken Isles . Though the " partial ore gathered " , introduced with " Warlords of Draenor " , remains in effect for lower levels , players in " Legion " zones will always gather full ores , regardless of mining level . Learning mining in the Isles is as easy as mining a node . In addition , the new ores have three ranks and perks associated with them . Ranks 1 and 3 increase the materials found , and Rank 2 increases the chance to find rare materials . Partial ore new in Warlords of Draenor . Starting with the " Warlords of Draenor " expansion , nearly all basic ore can be gathered with Mining skill of 1 , but the full ore will only drop if the character has the appropriate minimum skill to gather the ore . If the skill is below the minimum , a partial ore will drop that requires 10 to create the full ore . Partial ore will almost always have the suffix " Nugget " added to the names of the full ore to distinguish them as partial ore . Uses . Mining is a complementary profession to blacksmithing , engineering , and jewelcrafting . Mining provides ores , which can be used in smelting bars , included after learning mining . Both mining the ores and smelting them provide skill points . Mining can be a profitable gathering profession because of the large sums utilized by the other primary professions . Jewelcrafters require five ore per prospect , blacksmiths can use dozens of bars for specific items , and engineers use large amounts of ore for the many consumable materials they can create . Mining also tends to benefit other miners , like in the case of getting the materials to smelt Dark Iron Bar s . Mining used to grant the player Toughness until Patch 6 . 0 . 2 . Economical gain . As with any gathering professional , low - level characters and characters without economic support may consider using two gathering professions . While this denies the player the ability to directly enhance his or her equipment / abilities , it does allow one to , in theory , make money quickly and easily through the use of the Auction House . An excellent way for miners of every skill level to make gold is to smelt two bars into a higher value bar . For example smelting a Copper Bar and Tin Bar together to create two Bronze Bar s , because a single bronze bar usually sells for more at the auction house than a copper or tin bar ( although players should always check to see if this is the case before smelting as the process is irreversible ) . Naturally , this means that someone could also buy copper and tin bars ( or even the usually cheaper ores ) from the auction house and smelt these into the more valuable bronze bars , thus yielding sometimes over 50 in profit with very little effort ( depending on server , prices of bronze , tin , and copper ) . If the miner personally farmed the ores , this profit can double , but it will take more time . Be warned that this method of gold - making works in the case of bronze bars ( on most servers ) because of the high demand ; it may not work as well for Steel Bar s or higher level bars . Regardless of the method chosen , mining can be profitable . Be sure to check the local prices of ore against smelted bars . Frequently ores will be more valuable because they can be prospected or smelted for skill points . This desirability leads to increased cost per unit . Tools and abilities . A mining pick is required to mine nodes in - game . This item type can be found at various vendor s , such as " trade good " , " mining supplies " , " engineering supplies " , and " blacksmithing supplies " vendors . The pick must be in the player ' s inventory to be used when mining a node , though does not have to be equipped . A trained apprentice miner will immediately learn the Find Minerals ability , which highlights nearby nodes on the mini - map . The miner will also learn the accompanying smelting skill . This skill is used to convert one or more ore and elemental ingredients into bar s , which are used in various professions . This skill can only be used in the vicinity of a forge , and will occasionally grant skill points depending on the player profession level . In addition to a miner ' s pick and their ore - sensing abilities , dedicated ore farming may require a bag . There are a few specialized bags that can be made or bought . These bags typically have 20 , 28 , or 32 slots and will automatically store mined ores . They cannot , however , store other non - mining objects . Worthy of note : Mining skill and its increase . Different veins require different mining skill levels to loot ( e . g . mithril veins require a skill of 175 ) . The relative difficulty of the mining attempt is color - coded : Although the same colors are used as for other professions , the actual odds of getting a skillup are considerably higher than the color would indicate . For example , at skill 60 , a copper vein will appear green but have a ~ 80 % chance of giving a skillup . In general , if a node is of the highest - level type of ore a player can mine ( not counting rare veins like silver or gold ) , there is a very high chance of a skillup . To mine a vein , right - click on it . After a brief animation , a loot box will appear containing ore , stone , and sometimes rare drops like gem s or mote s . Nodes that are orange or yellow in difficulty will likely increase your mining ability , so it is important to focus on these nodes when leveling this profession . Prior to Patch 3 . 0 . 8 , mining a node completely required multiple attempts , one for each unit of ore . As such , each node could yield one point of skill per miner . This allowed several players in a raid or group to mine the same node for a skill - up . Since the patch , a single mining attempt extracts all available loot from the vein . Alternatively , miners can share a node for a skill - up by not looting the vein . This allows multiple miners to gain a skill point , but only one miner will receive all the ore . Smelting provides an opportunity to level mining at a faster pace . Large stores of collected ore can be smelted in large quantities . Since 3 . 08 , it has been possible to level from 1 - 375 via smelting , but this is expensive , since at certain skill ranges there is a very low chance of getting a skill point . In Azeroth , Outland , and Northrend there exist " rare " spawns of various ore veins in place or more common metals . Specifically : These vein types are visually distinct from normal veins . They typically have a glossier , shinier model . Mining products . By skill level . See Mining proficiencies and Smelt proficiencies . Quest items . Quest ore is usually mined off special nodes , but can also drop off certain mobs in the same area . The ores cannot be smelted and are not " quest items " " per se " , so they can be traded or purchased off the AH .