Mining

Mining is a basic, and fairly essential skill for an aspiring blacksmith or, to a slightly lesser degree, tinker. To begin mining you will need tools, these can be either picks or shovels and can be used from the backpack, they do not need to be equipped:

* A shovel or pickaxe bought from a tinker npc has 50 uses before it breaks.
* An exceptional shovel or pickaxe made by a player using tinkering skill has 100 uses.
* High quality mining tools, such as the sturdy pickaxe and sturdy shovel, obtained by blacksmiths turning in a completed Bulk Order Deed, have approximately 180 uses.

You may also consider acquiring or taming a fire beetle. This very special rideable creature allows you to smelt or into ingots on its back. They can sometimes be found for sale on pet stalls in Britiain.

The best place to begin your mining career is in Minoc with the quest from Jacob Smith The Mining Instructor. There are three sizes of ore, (4 graphics) which when smelted give the following number of ingots:

## Conversion

There are nine basic ore types which can be mined at various skill levels, the higher types being rarer and requiring more skill to mine and smelt.

## Special Tools

Once you begin mining colors some additional tools can be considered:

* **Prospector’s tool**, obtained by blacksmiths turning in bulk orders, will allow you to extract ore one color higher than that normally yielded by a vein. For instance, if you use it on a verite vein, you will obtain valorite. To use this item dig once with the shovel/pickaxe, use the tool on the ore vein then dig normally to empty the spot. This tool has 50 uses.
* **Pickaxe of Total Mining**. Adds 35.0 Mining skill while equipped!
* **Gloves of Total Mining** obtained as a quest reward or rare item drop these come in 3 types and, when worn, will boost your mining skill. This is especially helpful when smelting, however when mining colored ore only real skill affects your ability to find the higher types. From publish 92, February 2016 leather and ringmail gloves can be altered to become gargoyle kilts
	+ Leather Blacksmith Gloves of Mining +1 mining
	+ Studded Blacksmith Gloves of Mining +3 mining
	+ Ringmail Blacksmith Gloves of Mining +5 mining
* **Miner’s map**, an item with a 24 hour lifespan obtained as a bulk order reward by either blacksmith or miner or cartography master or rare item drop. Mine near the  target coordinates while holding the map to discover a large deposit of the ore named on the map (Golden, Agapite, Verite or Valorite).
* **Master Smelter’s Half Apron**, an item with a 24 hour lifespan obtained as a quest reward from a blacksmith or miner or rare item drop. this item gives  100% chance to smelt the named ore. Most useful when used in conjunction with a map for the same ore.
* **Rock Hammer**, an item obtained as a bulk order reward by either blacksmith or tinker or rare item drop which gives an increased  chance to dig up high quality granite while mining.
* **Jacob’s Pickaxe**, this item, obtained from the mining accelerated gain quest or rare item drop, boosts mining by 10, however it only has 20 uses and while it will recharge, it will break if charges reach 0, therefore equip it to obtain the skill boost, but ensure that you use tools from your back pack to actually dig.
* **Miner’s Satchel –** 50% Weight Reduction, holds ore, ingots, stone, gems, granite, and sand, obtained as a reward from the Cave Master Quest or rare item drop

## Ore Types

Ore spots give a consistent total amount of ore each time they are mined, this can be either all iron or a mix of iron and colored, with Valorite Ore being the hardest to find and Iron Ore the easiest. The spots have a random chance to change what ore they give at each respawn.

At the minimum required mining skill, when digging a particular colored ore vein, there is a 50% chance of actually digging up the colored ore. A miner with high mining skill is more likely to find a colored ore vein than a less skilled miner.

To gain in skill, mine the highest ore you are able to, smelting colored ore into ingots gives better gains than smelting normal iron ore.

## Other Resources

Once you have become a Grand Master miner at 100 skill it becomes possible to find other resources as you mine. Some happen automatically, some you can only find in set locations, some you will need to read special books to enable you to find them. Each of these books is bought in Royal City, Ter Mur, can only be read by a grand master miner and cost around 10,000gp. A context menu on your pick or shovel will allow you to select which of these ‘book learned’ resources will be mined. The context menu choice to mine stone only was added in publish 94, August 2016

* + 6 Gems used to craft a variety of items spawn randomly when mining at GM level. These are:
		- Blue Diamond,
		- Fire Ruby
		- Perfect Emerald,
		- Dark Sapphire
		- Ecru Citrine,
		- Turquoise
	+ Crystaline Blackrock spawns randomly when mining at GM level in the Ter Mur Facet (These can also be found as loot on ore elementals dug using a gargoyle pickaxe on all facets)
	+ Saltpeter can be mined from niter deposits in dungeons or from boats. Only miners with high luck can find these deposits which can occur in 5 different sizes, miners harvesting in Felucca will benefit from a 1000 point luck bonus. Once found the miner must mine the deposit until it is consumed. The niter will decay if not mined when found.
	+ The book ‘Mining for Quality Gems’ bought from a blacksmith in Royal City allows normal, jewelry gems, to be found randomly when mining with the tool’s context menu set to ‘ore and gems’.
	+ The book ‘Mining for Quality Stone’ bought from the stonecrafter in Royal City allows stone to be found randomly when mining with the tool’s context menu set to ‘stone’. Granite comes in the same colors as ore, weighs 1 stone and is stackable. It is used for Stonecrafting

The book ‘Find Glass-Quality Sand’ bought from Gargoyle Alchemists in Royal City allows sand to be found on beaches and along some coast lines. Sand is stackable, though the weight is a little confusing, 1 – 10 sand weighs 1 stone, 11 – 20 sand weigh 2 stones, 21 – 30 sand weigh 3 stones, etc. You will successfully dig up sand with each attempt until the spot is emptied; as with ore, the amount of sand in a spot will vary, usually between 6 and 13. Sand can be used by GM Alchemists for Glass blowing