Money making guide/Mining iron ore

Not to be confused with Money making guide/Mining iron ore (free-to-play).

Iron ore is an ore always in demand, due to its use in producing iron and steel bars via Smithing. There are many locations to mine iron ore, but the Mining Guild features several advantages; a trio set of iron ore rocks that are extremely close to a deposit box, an invisible +7 boost to mining, a 50% reduced ore respawn timer (which means you never have downtime between ores respawning), and a 1/100 chance per iron ore to acquire Unidentified minerals. Unidentified minerals can be exchanged for increased profits, or for Mining gloves and their variants. Mining iron is the fastest way to acquire unidentified minerals in the game.

Optimal rates are achieved by utilizing Varrock Armour 1 or higher. A Celestial ring provides more ore per hour, but not enough to cover the time spent acquiring stardust. Gems provide more profit than an iron ore, so therefore profit rates for the Mining guild are calculated for wearing a charged amulet of glory.

The primary alternative to the Mining Guild location for iron ore is the Trahaearn Mine. You will not get unidentified materials, but you will get crystal shards, which will be rewarded at a 1/65 chance for each ore acquired, including bonus ores from mining enhancers. This is 26.2 crystal shards per hour on average (Varrock armour assumed). Each shard obtained can be worth as much as 11,905.00 coins; this may be enough to make the celestial ring worth using, since it increases ore yield by 10%, meaning using it will yield 2.6 extra crystal shards per hour. If you wish to mine here, intentionally not using the amulet of glory to increase the amount of actual ore per hour may result in more profit via more crystal shards as well. The overall profit in the Trahaearn mine per hour will be around 671,527 coins.

The Mining Guild is located in Falador and can be most easily accessed using a Skills necklace. The Trahaearn mine is located within Prifddinas and can be accessed with a (eternal) teleport crystal or via the spirit tree network after completing Song of the Elves.

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