WoW Mining Skills and Formulas

Skill Levels Required to Mine Veins and DepositsSkill Level Vein or Deposit
1 Copper
65 Tin
75 Silver
125 Iron
155 Gold
175 Mithril
230 Truesilver
230 Dark Iron
250 Small Thorium
275 Rich Thorium
300 Fel Iron
325 Adamantite
350 Rich Adamantite
375 Khorium


Note: If you are trying to figure out where to mine for Bronze, Steel, or Elementium then STOP! Bronze and steel are both smelted (meaning there is no such thing as bronze ore or steel ore) and Elementium is a drop.
Smelting Formulas and Skill LevelsRequired Skill Item Materials
N/A Elementium Bar 1x Elementium Ore
1 Copper Bar 1x Copper Ore
50 Tin Bar 1x Tin Ore
65 Bronze Bar 1x Copper Bar 1x Tin Bar
75 Silver Bar 1x Silver Ore
125 Iron Bar 1x Iron Ore
155 Gold Bar 1x Gold Ore
165 Steel Bar 1x Iron Bar, 1x Coal
175 Mithril Bar 1x Mithril Ore
230 Truesilver Bar 1x Truesilver Ore
230 Dark Iron Bar 8x Dark Iron Ore
250 Thorium Bar 1x Thorium Ore
300 Fel Iron Bar 2x Fel Iron Ore
325 Adamantite Bar 2x Adamantite Ore
350 Felsteel Bar 5x Fel Iron Bar 2x Eternium Bar
350 Eternium Bar 2x Eternium Ore
365 Khorium Bar 2x Khorium Ore
375 Hardened Adamantite Bar 10x Adamantite Bar 

Smelting Dark Iron (Requires 230 Mining)

You must clear your way into Blackrock Depths and find Gloom'rel in the Chamber of the Sevens. If you give him 2 Star Rubies, 10 Truesilver Bars, and 20 Gold Bars he will teach you how to smelt Dark Iron, but you must have at least 230 mining skill. To smelt the Dark Iron after you have the skill you will have to bring Dark Iron Ore to the Black Forge in Blackrock Depths which is near Lord Incendius.

If you have trouble finding the Chamber of Seven it is because it is behind a locked door in a room full of drunken dwarves, there are several ways to open this door.

1) Speak to the succubus and complete her quest line, she will lead you through the door once you have done it.

2) Have a rogue pickpocket the key from a leper gnome.

3) Buy 6 Dark Iron Ale Mugs and complete the quest from Private Rocknot 3x, giving him 2 each time. He will get so drunk he will walk over to a barrel it will explode and blow open the door. 

Be careful when performing steps 2 and 3 because Phalanx the door guard can aggro and cause the entire dwarven room to aggro so before opening the door I recommend you either stand near Phalanx to keep him under control or run through the door immediately and pull him through with you, but be careful not to aggro the other mobs on the other side of the door.

Dark Iron Ore can only be mined or dropped in Burning Steppes, Blackrock Depths, Searing Gorge, Black Rock Mountain, and Molten Core.
Learning Smelt Elementium

Elementium is extremely rare and used only for those very important pre-Burning Crusade weapons such as Thunderfury. To learn the skill you will have to venture into Blackwing Lair, find Master Elemental Shaper Krixix., and have a Priest mind-control him. Once he is mind controlled a skill will be on the pet bar called “Smelt Elementium,” target any player who wishes to learn to smelt Elementium and cast this skill on them. Elementium Ore is a rare drop the goblins in Blackwing Lair but has almost a 7% chance to drop off of Master Elemental Shaper Krixix.

You do not have to have mining trained to smelt Elementium.