Mining

Mining is an action in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Mining is performed at ore veins using a Pickaxe (required). Ore veins produce their respective ores and possibly a precious gem. This action is similar to chopping wood, in that it produces items from "nothing" at certain designated spots in Skyrim.

A quicker method of mining can also be achieved by wielding or dual wielding pickaxes and attacking the ore vein. Ore veins replenish their ores after about a month. Malachite may replenish every 15 days.

A typical node can produce between 1 and 3 ores, but the yield can be manipulated through mining technique. Auto-mining typically yields 2 ores throughout the entire animation. By letting the animation run until the first ore collection notification (top left) appears and then stopping it on the third hit. This takes longer but ensures that the most ore possible is collected from the vein.

Bug: The "ore added" message doesn't always display. You may see the message twice, but receive 3 ores.

Ore
There are 9 different types of ore that can be mined in Skyrim. .

Ore Veins are all across the world of Skyrim from a simple mine to the tops of mountains. You can typically identify that they are mineable by the different colored striations that standout in the typical grey rocks that dominate the landscape of Skyrim. Depending on your style of game play, travel may increase or decrease your chances of encountering world mining nodes, based on how you travel the world. Players that use fast traveling will be less likely to encounter nodes than a player that travels via horse back or on foot. (This is outside the typical mines in the vastness of the world)

Ore veins can typically be identified by their unique colorations or striations. Two examples are: Iron, which is a grey with reddish orange strata, and Malachite with its greenish hue with silver-greyish strata. After encountering these ores a player can usually identify the type of node as he approaches it. Enviromental conditions can make it somewhat dificult to spot and identify a node.

A typical vein will yield anywhere from 1-3 ores, though the average is two, especially when the player uses the mining animation to perform the activity. There is better success in obtaining three ores by stopping the animation after three hits and then restarting. The process takes a little longer, but is much more effective in obtaining max resources from a vein. Please see Alternate Mining Methods below.

When a vein is mined completely, it will lose the colored strata associated to that mineral type and will be less distinctive. This is useful in that, at a glance, you can usually determine if you have mined that node or not if you happen to lose track of what you have collected.

Ore Vein Reference
Each vein has its own distinctive color and pattern, which disappears after the node has been mined and the rock returns to its normal gray color.

Iron Veins
Resembles a darker grey rock with striations of white and reddish orange flecks. This vein will stick out somewhat in the backdrop of the grey of a mountain. It is occassionally found along some mountain paths and rocky terrain surrounding a cave, and can be difficult to spot in caves and dark environments.

Corundum Veins
Yellowish-orange in striations, and can sometimes be found with other veins or in close proxie. Potentially yields Rubies.

Orichalcum Veins
Dark green striations in the rock, similar to orc penis skin color

Gold Veins
Gold Striations in the rock, a shiny goldish color

Silver Veins
White and Black strata across grey rock.

Ebony Veins
Dark in striations and color.

Moonstone Veins
Reddish orange in striations, though it's possible to miss it because it blends in with certain backgrounds, such as a cave.

Malachite Veins
Malachite appears as green streaks across the generic gray rock that other ores appear on.

Ore Bugs
There have been some issues with mining where the animation cuts out earlier or a node is not easily accessable (i.e., it will not mine when activated). This can be bypassed by wielding your pickaxe and attacking these veins. It's rare for a vein to become unmineable via the animation. Additionally you can save in place, close skyrim, load, and you will be able to successful mine the ore.

There is an ore vein up the mountain and to the right of a Shrine of Stendarr in the Whiterun region. Appears to be a Silver Vein. Alternate Mining Method does not work on it.

Alternate Mining Methods
There is a method to extract the maximum number of ores by interrupting the mining animation after it hits the ore for the third time. By doing this, you can usually extract a larger yield of ore than letting the animation run. This is confirmed for Xbox360. (Unknown if this has been patched as of yet)(Just tested on PS3 version didn't get any extra ore on here.)

Players can also choose to attack the vein if they have a Pickaxe equipped. Whether this will also extract more ore is unconfirmed. You can also dual-wield Pickaxes and attack the ore twice as fast.

Some confusion has occured with mining due to the message for receiving your second piece of ore not showing up. You recieve three peices of ore, per vein, before it runs out. Due to the way the messages are handled however you only recieved item recieved messages twice.

Locations
Locations specific to each ore are noted on the pages below:


 * Corundum Ore
 * Ebony Ore
 * Geode Vein
 * Gold Ore
 * Iron Ore
 * Malachite Ore
 * Moonstone Ore
 * Orichalcum Ore
 * Quicksilver Ore
 * Silver Ore