You don’t have to max out your mining to make a lot of gold in World of Warcraft Cataclysm. I’m actually making more gold from mining and selling lower level metals. Why? Because it’s quicker to mine it once you have flight and less competition. My miner is in a busy server and I don’t often run into other miners in the mining zones I go to.
If you want to sell what you’ve mined quickly, smelt them into bars. Bars are more popular than ores. Which metal bars do I sell quick and easy?
Thorium Bars – a stack of 20 can go from 25 gold up to over 100+ gold. The average I sell for a stack of 20 thorium bars is 35 gold.
Mithril Bars – similar to thorium, they can go from 20+ gold onwards. The average I sell for a stack of 20 mithril bars is 35 gold.
Copper Bars – usually go for 15+ gold onwards. The average I sell for a stack of 20 copper bars is 25 gold.
With copper bars, I tend to check the AH for how much they’re going for, if the price is too low (12 gold a stack of 20), I don’t bother with it at all. If the price is over 30 gold, that’s when I try to cash in on these things.
Firstly, with these metals you don’t need 2 or 3 ore to turn them into bars, unlike the higher level ones like saronite or obsidium. With these, 1 ore = 1 metal bar. Secondly, the nodes to mine are easily found. Just do a circuit around the zone, near the borders where the hills are.
Added bonus for mining is that you pick up a lot of gems, too. Some you can sell for over 10 gold each, others from 1+ gold. The stones you collect sell for a stack of 20, not usually of high value but it all adds up.
So where do you mine these popular metals? These are places I go to because they are abundant there.
Copper (by far the most popular of the three) – Durotar, Darkshore, Elwynn Forest, Azhara, Loch Modan, Tirisfal Glades. For zones where you won’t get much disturbance, try Eversong Woods or Redridge Mountains.
Mithril – Thousand Needles, Burning Steppes, Felwood and Badlands.
Thorium – Un’Goro Crater, Winterspring and Silithus
I usually mine in between battlegrounds or when I have 15 minutes or so to spare over coffee.
For more Gold info, try WoW Cataclysm Gold Guide.
