WoW Mining Guide 1-375
(mining to 375 with a high level character)
This guide is intended to be used by people who are power leveling their mining using a high level character who has an array of flight paths, mounts, and is high enough level to easily access all of these zones without too much difficulty.
Physically mining nodes is not the only option to power level your mining. For some steps it may be feasible to buy ore off the auction house and smelt it. You can get your mining from 1 to 140 from smelting without ever touching a mine but it will be very expensive because some of the ores are rare, if you wish to skip these first steps and power level your mining to 140 from smelting see the Smelting 1-140 section at the bottom of this guide. If you'd like to smelt but don't have the money check out this Gold Guide for gold making ideas.
Leveling Sections:
1-65 - Copper
66-125 – Tin
126-175 - Iron
176-245 – Mithril
246-300 – Thorium
301-350 – Fel Iron
351-375 - Adamantite
Smelting 1-140
Mining Copper
Skill: 1-65
The first resource you will be mining while power leveling your mining is Copper. If you have money you can just skip this step and buy Copper Ore and smelt it into Copper Bars, but if for some reason you would like to use mining instead of smelting to level your skill for this part, I recommend the following zones and routes.


There are also more routes are available in the Horde Copper Mining Guide and Alliance Copper Mining Guide.
Mining Tin
Skill: 66-125
At skill level 75 you will be able to mine Silver which you will find frequently while mining Tin. This will help you get your skill to 125. If you have the money, smelting Bronze Bars or Silver Bars from buying ore in the auction house will also help you speed up this step. The best Tin Mining Routes are available below.


There are also more routes are available from the Tin Mining Guide.
Mining Iron
Skill: 126-175
At skill level 155 you will also be able to mine and smelt Gold which can help you get to 175 faster. I recommend buying 20 Gold Ore off the auction house when you hit skill 155 to smelt 20 Gold Bars and use those skill ups to make the process faster (make sure you trained smelt gold from the Alliance Mining Trainer or Horde Mining Trainer).


There are more Iron routes are available from the Iron Mining Guide.
Mining Mithril
Skill: 176-245
At skill level 230 you will be able to mine Dark Iron Ore and Truesilver Ore, both can help you get to 245 quicker but the majority of the work will be done by mining Mithril. The best Mithril mining routes are found below.


More Mithril routes are available from the Mithril Mining Guide.
Additionally to help from 230-245 you may find the Dark Iron Mining Guide or Truesilver Mining Guide useful.
Mining Thorium
Skill: 246-300
You will NOT be able to mine Rich Thorium Veins until skill 270 so try to focus on mining Small Thorium Veins until then. Also, I personally have mined Thorium until I hit skill level 340 so if you are not quite high enough to enter Outland safely you can stay on Thorium until 340. Below are the best Small Thorium Mining Routes.


Switch to these areas after you hit skill 270 to get to 300 faster.


More Thorium mining routes are available from the Thorium Mining Guide.
Mining Fel Iron
Skill: 301-350
I want to point out that you can level your mining to 375 just by mining Fel Iron but it may take a little bit longer. I did it without leaving Hellfire Peninsula. It slows down after the mines turn green at 350, but it is possible. Below is the best Fel Iron Mining Route (yes you only need one).

More Fel Iron mining routes are available from the Fel Iron Mining Guide.
Mining Adamantite
Skill: 351-375
At 350 you are able to mine both Rich Adamantite Deposits and Adamantite Deposits so you should have no trouble going to 375 swiftly if you follow these routes.


If you have a flying mount do not use the two areas above but instead try these.


More Adamantite mining routes are available from the Adamantite Mining Guide.
Smelting your Mining from 1-140 Guide
Smelting Copper
Skills: 1-65
Buy enough Copper Ore from the auction house to reach skill 65 in mining. You will need at least 65 Copper Ore. Try starting off by buying 100 Copper Ore and see where you end up.
| Copper Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 1 |
| Yellow | 25 |
| Green | 45 |
| Gray | 70 |
Smelting Bronze
Skills: 65-90
For this step you will need to combine 1 Tin Bar with 1 Copper Bar in order to smelt a Bronze Bar. To start off buy at least 30 Copper Bars and 30 Tin Bars to smelt 30 at least 30 Bronze Bars. If Copper or Tin bars are not available on the auction house then buy the ores and make the bars yourself. You can get 10 more skill ups from smelting Tin Bars which might quicken this process.
| Bronze Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | - |
| Yellow | 65 |
| Green | 90 |
| Gray | 115 |
Smelting Silver
Skills: 90-125
This is a very expensive step to level your mining up from 90-125 by smelting Silver Ore into a Silver Bars because it will turn green around 110. You will want to buy at least 40 Silver Ore to start off with and then buy more as needed.
| Silver Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 75 |
| Yellow | 100 |
| Green | 110 |
| Gray | 125 |
Smelting Iron
Skills: 125-140
Buy at least 20 Iron Ore from the auction house and smelt it into Iron Bars.
| Iron Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 125 |
| Yellow | - |
| Green | 130 |
| Gray | 140 |
There is a break in Smelting here. You will have to follow the mining guide until at least 155 when Gold is available to smelt.
Smelting Gold
Skills: 155-185
You will be able to smelt Gold from 155-185 but it will most likely be more expensive than smelting Silver. You will want to buy at least 40 Gold Ore from the auction house for this step.
| Gold Skill Proficiency | Smelting |
| Orange | 155 |
| Yellow | 170 |
| Green | 175 |
| Gray | 185 |
At this point you will have to mine to get your skill up to 375.




I wanted to make a new miner as my main is switching from mining to Engineering. Thus I was going to need a lot of mats for powerleveling the Engineering, which I could make as a miner, but instead of smelting the ores to bars I just let a new toon do all the smelting. The end result was a level 25 with 290 in mining (where smelting Thorium turns grey). I know that it is possible to smelt all the way to 375, but to get past the 290 you need to go to BRD/MC, which wasn't an option with a lvl 25.
Great guide btw, keep up the good work.
Best Regards
Coraral
Mith Smelting does indeed take you 230 , and imo its more efficent than runing around praying for a + on a node.
Great guide btw , im 230 without setting foot out of thunderbuff in 23 minutes..
Another discrepancy: why does it say that from 185 your only option is mining? I just smelted mithril up to 202 when it turned green and I didn't feel like buying any more ore to try for the couple points I might have gotten.
Just one quick thing though. Not sure if it changed recent, but you can indeed smelt iron right up to 155. There is no gap. Just did it.