Money making guide/Mining (F2P)

This article is about the free-to-play guide. For the members guide, see Money making guide/Mining (P2P).

Notice that all money-making ways in this table are available for both non-members and members.

Mining is a fast money making method used among lower level players as a way to make money. More experienced players will find that mining can be slow but still extremely profitable at high levels. It is also useful to have some kind of run refreshing device for quick access to banks. For all mining occupations, you make money quicker the higher your Mining level, as you mine the ores faster. Many players get a friend to mine ore and give it to them to take to the bank, but sometimes people hire and occasionally full-scale mining operations are created.

Effectiveness (coins per hour)	Mining level requirement	Details	Risk factors	Other requirements
*****	Level 1	Mining rune essence You can mine rune essence and sell it for around coins each (sometimes you need to drop the price a little bit to get it to sell in the Grand Exchange). Essences mine quickly; it usually takes less than a minute to fill an inventory, and then another minute or so is needed to get the mined essence to a bank and return to the mine for another load. For fast banking it is recommended that you use Aubury in Varrock to get to the essence mines and deposit each load of runes in the bank which is just north of his shop. It is also highly recommended that you wield your pickaxe and nothing else to increase your run time. With a Rune pickaxe wielded, it takes an average of 101.5 seconds per load assuming Varrock east bank is used to bank the essence.	None	Rune Mysteries completed.
*****	Level 1	Mining clay In the West Varrock Mine, in the Dwarven Mine, or near the Crafting Guild, you can mine clay, which sells for coins each. Players can also wet them at a water source to turn clay into soft clay, which sells for 174 coins. Clay is always in high demand - massive amount of players (F2P and P2P alike) need it for various skills. This means clay & soft clay can always be sold easily and may be sold at a higher price than standard. You can also use a Clan vexillium and Ring of Kinship teleport to shorten the bank trips if you're mining at the crafting guild.	Level 6 Mugger in the mine south-west of Varrock King Scorpions if you enter the Dwarven Mine from the Falador entrance If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the clay, you may not be able to get any	Crafting level of 40 to enter the Crafting Guild (optional)
*****	Level 15	Mining iron Iron ore sells for coins, and is very quick to mine. The West Varrock Mine is decent due to its proximity to a bank, but the East Varrock Mine and the Dwarven Mines are also popular. At 15 Dungeoneering, the Dwarven Mines surpass all other F2P mining locations due to the addition of a deposit box in the Resource Dungeon. This allows for extremely fast banking. It should be noted that iron is the best moneymaking ore, as well as the best training ore, until higher levels. As of now iron ore mining is the fastest money making way for f2p with the drop of price of yews and lack of bots making around 75k per hour.	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the iron ore, you may not be able to get any Level 6 Mugger in the mine south-west of Varrock King Scorpions if you enter the Dwarven Mine from the Falador entrance or mine the iron in the southern end of the mine
*****	Level 20	Mining silver Silver ore sells for coins each, and is found in accessible locations. The best is the West Varrock Mine due to its proximity to a bank, but the Al Kharid mine is also available. Unfortunately, silver ore rocks only respawn every 2 minutes, which means a lot of time standing around waiting for the ore to become available for mining, which greatly reduces the profit per hour. A way to keep your profit per hour at a steady pace is to mine another type of ore (iron would be best) while waiting on the silver ore to respawn.	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the silver ore, you may not be able to get any Level 14 scorpions in the Al Kharid mine Level 6 mugger in the West Varrock Mine
*****	Level 20	Mining silver (crafting guild) There are twice as many silver rocks at the crafting guild as at the West Varrock Mine or Al Kharid mine, meaning the mining goes quicker, but its distance from a bank means the final profit is reduced.	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the silver ore, you may not be able to get any	Crafting level 40
*****	Level 30	Mining coal At this level you can mine coal and sell it for coins each. However, mining coal is a slow process until much higher mining levels are reached (50+). The most profitable place to mine coal is the Dwarven mine resource dungeon (Need 15 Dungeoneering) and using the deposit box there. There are 13 coal rocks there and usually 3-5 other people in that mine. Mining at the Lumbridge Swamp south-west mine without an explorer's ring 3 generates coins/hour; mining in the Gunnarsgrunn and banking at Edgeville generates coins/hour.	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the coal, you may not be able to get any	Explorer's ring 3 (optional), Level 15 Dungeoneering (optional)
*****	Level 40	Mining gold You can mine gold ore in the Dwarven Mines, the Rimmington Mine, or in the Al-Kharid mine (each mine has 2 gold rocks). Gold ore sells for coins each. However, this method is not very effective because of the slow respawn rate of gold (approx. 1.56 minutes). Mining in Al-Kharid is most effective to steady your profit per hour, because while gold respawns, you can mine both silver ore and coal to pass the time.Note that silver can only be mined once.	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the gold, you may not be able to get any Level 14 scorpions in the Al Kharid mine King Scorpions in the Dwarven Mine
*****	Level 40	Mining gold (Karamja/Crandor) Although Crandor island and the Karamja volcano would seem to be poor locations due to their distance from a bank, the slow respawn rate of gold means that mining in these locations is relatively profitable since there are more rocks (4 in each location). The recommended method is: Use the mine inside the Karamja volcano Use the cabbage teleport feature of the explorer's ring 3 to get from the mine to the bank in Draynor or the deposit box near the Monks of Entrana when you have a full load Use a Varrock teleport spell when done to get from the mine to the Grand Exchange	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the gold, you may not be able to get any Level 14 Scorpions Level 22 Skeletons	30 gold (for the boat); must have reached Crandor island on the Dragon slayer quest.
*****	Level 40	Mining gold (crafting guild) There are 7 gold rocks at the crafting guild, meaning the mining goes quicker, but its distance from a bank means the final profit is reduced.	If a player with a higher mining level is also mining the gold ore, you may not be able to get any	Crafting level 40
2*****	Level 55	Mining mithril Mithril ore sells for coins each, but supply is very limited for non-members. The Mining Guild contains 5 mithril rocks (but requires 60 Mining), and mining from mithril rocks in the Wilderness or Lumbridge Swamp is also possible. There are 3 mithril rocks at the Al Kharid mining area, and there is also mithril on Crandor, although the distance and the presence of aggressive monsters does not make it a convenient place to mine. The current best place to mine Mithril for Free players is the Resource dungeon in the Dwarven Mines, however competition is an issue in the location. Another option is to use the hidden mine - the resource dungeon in the mining guild.
3*****	Level 60	Mining coal (Mining Guild) Once you can enter the Mining Guild, coal mining speeds up noticeably as there are many coal rocks inside the Guild and the Guild is very close to the eastern bank in Falador.
4*****	Level 70	Mining adamantite Adamantite ore sells for each and can be found in the Hobgoblin Mine (level 34-37 Wilderness), the west Lumbridge Swamp mine, Al Kharid, Crandor, Dwarven Mine and the Edgeville Dungeon. Do not pass through the Bandit Camp on your way to or from the mine.Mining adamantite ore by hopping worlds can earn you up to 120k per hour.
5*****	Level 85	Mining runite Runite ore is the most expensive ore in the game, at coins each. It is found in two locations; the two rocks in level 46 Wilderness and the runite rocks in the mining guild resource dungeon (45 dungeoneering required). The amount of time it takes runite to respawn is dependant on world population; it will spawn quicker on more-populated worlds (12.5–25 minutes). Most players who mine runite tend to switch worlds rather than wait for the ore to respawn. It is recommended not to hop to busy servers, as the rocks may be mined already. Also, turning Private chat off is effective, so that friends won't be bothered by the spamming messages of the world switches. Also, it is highly recommended NOT to start mining runite at level 85 because of the number of players at that level trying the same tactic as you. (Level 89-90+ is recommended) Timing assumptions (assuming you use no more than 25 energy points) Walking/running time from Grand Exchange to bank in Al Kharid = 3:30 Walking/running time from Al Kharid mine to bank in Al Kharid = 1:15 Walking/running time from Grand Exchange to West Varrock Mine = 0:45 Walking/running time from West Varrock Mine to bank = 0:40 Walking/running time from Grand Exchange to Crafting guild = 3:00 Walking/running time from Crafting guild to bank = 1:00 Walking/running time from Grand Exchange to East Varrock Mine = 2:00 Walking/running time from East Varrock Mine to bank = 0:45 Walking/running time from Grand Exchange to north entrance of Dwarven Mine = 2:15 Walking/running time from north entrance of Dwarven Mine to south entrance of Dwarven Mine = 0:45 Walking/running time from south entrance of Dwarven Mine to closest iron ore = 0:15 Walking/running time from south entrance of Dwarven Mine to bank = 0:45 (0:25,requires 15 dungeoneering) Walking/running time from south entrance of Dwarven Mine to Grand Exchange (overland route through Falador) = 3:15 Walking/running time from north entrance of Dwarven Mine to closest iron ore = 0:20 Walking/running time from north entrance of Dwarven Mine to bank in Edgeville = 1:15 Walking/running time from Gunnarsgrunn to bank in Edgeville = 0:40 Walking/running time from Grand Exchange to Gunnarsgrunn = 1:00 Walking/running time from Rimmington mine to bank in Draynor village (using cabbage teleport) = 0:45 Walking/running time from bank in Draynor village to Rimmington mine = 1:00 Walking/running time from Rimmington mine to Grand Exchange (using cabbage teleport) = 2:30