Copper Ore Farming Routes: Elwynn, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Mulgore and Tirisfal (Mining 1–65)
A copper ore farming route for Mining 1–65 through all five starter zones: kobold mines, trogg caves, the Venture Co. mine, where tin begins, and ore vs bars.
Copper is the first ore in the game and, for the first weeks of a realm, one of the most wanted: every blacksmith and engineer starts on copper bars, every leveller wants a Rough Sharpening Stone, and nobody above level 20 wants to ride back to Goldshire for it. The veins stand in all five starter zones, mostly in and around the mines the local quests send you into anyway, so a miner with a few spare minutes can take Mining from 1 to 65 while the character is still level 10. This copper ore farming route gives one short loop per starter zone, Alliance and Horde, says where the first tin appears at the zone edges, and compares selling ore with smelting it, for a new character on a vanilla-era realm such as WoW Forever.
Where and what you need
Levels. Copper veins have no level, but the mines do. The mouths of the kobold and trogg caves are fine from level 5; the deeper tunnels in Elwynn and Dun Morogh hold level 7–10 mobs, the Venture Co. mine in Mulgore 6–9, and the troll ruins on the Durotar coast 8–11. Everything here is done by level 12, when the zone turns gray and the Westfall farming route or the Barrens take over.
Professions. Mining from the trainer in the first village, Find Minerals switched on the minimap, and a Mining Pick in the bag. Apprentice Mining covers 1–75, so one trainer visit is enough for the whole route; Journeyman is learned at 50 in any capital. Engineering or Blacksmithing as the second profession turns the ore into skill points of its own, Herbalism turns the walk between veins into a second income.
Gear. Whatever the starter quests hand you. Speed is the only stat that matters: veins respawn on a timer measured in minutes, so the character who covers more ground wins. Bring ten food and ten water.
Bag space. Copper Ore, Rough Stone, Copper Bars and the gems all stack separately, and a single vein can fill two slots. Two extra bags and a hearth at the village inn where the loop starts save most of the walking. Starter zones are shared with every new character on the realm, so run the loops off-peak and move to the next zone rather than race a second miner.
The route
Each zone is its own short loop; the numbers match the map, Alliance first, then Horde.
- Elwynn Forest: the kobold mines. Start at the Goldshire inn and walk south to Fargodeep Mine, then east along the river to Jasperlode Mine. Veins stand at both entrances and along the first tunnels, among kobold tunnelers and miners in the 6–9 band. Clear the mouth, mine, and leave the deep rooms to the questers.
- Elwynn Forest: the eastern hills. From Jasperlode follow the hills east and north past the logging camp and the vineyards. Veins sit at the foot of the slopes, and the first tin veins of the Alliance side stand near the Redridge pass at the very edge of the zone. The Elwynn gold farming loop joins this lap with the linen and leather.
- Dun Morogh: the trogg caves and the Coldridge hills. From Kharanos run west along the road. Veins stand against the cliffs and inside the trogg cave by the valley wall, with troggs in the 5–8 band that are slow to pull and easy to split. The snow hides nothing: a vein is a brown patch on white.
- Dun Morogh: the Gol'Bolar quarry. Follow the road east past the airfield turn to the quarry south of the road. Troggs in the 7–9 band fill the pit and the tunnel at the back, and the quarry walls hold the densest copper in the zone. The hills east toward Loch Modan carry a few tin veins at 65.
- Durotar: the Valley of Trials hills. Horde miners start here. Circle the hills that wall the valley, then climb out and run north along the ridge to Razor Hill. Veins stand at the foot of every cliff, between scorpids and boars in the 3–7 band, and the cave in the valley's side holds two or three more.
- Durotar: the troll ruins coast. From Razor Hill run east to the coast and south along the shore past the troll ruins and the human encampment, then back north through the Razormane hills. Trolls and bandits in the 8–11 band patrol in pairs; mine the cliff bases and keep moving. The southern hills hold the zone's few tin veins.
- Mulgore: the Venture Co. mine and the rim. From Bloodhoof Village run north-east to the goblin mine in the hills. Venture Co. workers in the 7–9 band hold the tunnels and the copper lines the walls. Then ride the inside of the mountain rim clockwise around the plain: veins stand against the cliffs and nobody else is there.
- Tirisfal Glades: the mines by Brill and the Agamand farms. From Brill run north-east to the dark mines in the hills, then north-west to the Agamand farms, with their fenced fields and barns full of hostile ghosts in the 8–10 band. Veins stand in the mine tunnels and along the ridge behind the farms; the coast to the north-west carries the first tin.
What you get
| Source | Drops and nodes | Why it sells |
|---|---|---|
| Copper Vein (Mining 1) | Copper Ore, usually two to four lumps per node | Every blacksmith and engineer on the realm starts here and burns dozens of bars in the first fifty points |
| Rough Stone | One or two per vein, far more common than gems | Rough Sharpening Stones and Weightstones for every leveller, Rough Blasting Powder for every engineer |
| Malachite and Tigerseye | Rare drops from copper veins, roughly one in ten to one in twenty nodes | Early Blacksmithing and Engineering recipes call for them, and a few quests, so a single stone outsells a stack of ore on many realms |
| Shadowgem | Rarer still, mostly from the deeper veins | Engineering and enchanting-adjacent crafts want it; keep it rather than vendor it |
| Tin Vein (Mining 65) | Tin Ore at the zone edges | Bronze is tin plus copper, and bronze is the ore every crafter needs from skill 65 to 125 |
| Kobolds, troggs and goblins in the mines | Linen Cloth, gray picks and candles, a little silver | Pays for repairs and the first bags while the veins respawn |
Gold per hour
Be honest about what copper is: cheap by the piece, wanted by the stack. On a quiet realm with Find Minerals on and no other miner in the zone, a single starter loop yields roughly 40–80 ore an hour, which is roughly 60 silver to 2 gold before the auction house depending on the realm's age. Rough Stone adds roughly 10–30 silver, and a Malachite or Tigerseye, when one drops, roughly 10–40 silver on its own.
Skill moves faster than coin. Copper veins are orange until 25 and yellow until 50, so Mining 1–50 takes roughly forty to sixty nodes, which is an hour to ninety minutes of one loop. From 50 the veins turn green and the points slow down; smelting Copper Bars, which stays yellow to roughly 70, fills the gap to 65 in a few minutes at any forge.
What moves the number: realm age, since copper costs the most in the first weeks, how many other new characters are in the zone, whether you take the mine tunnels or only the mouths, and whether your character fights its way through or runs past.
Tips
- Keep Find Minerals on and ride the cliff bases and the mine walls; copper spawns against rock, almost never in the open grass.
- Mine the entrance veins of a mine even when someone is camping the mobs inside; nobody owns a mine mouth.
- Hold ore in full stacks of twenty for the auction house and vendor only the gray junk; a half stack sells for less per piece.
- Smelt only what does not sell as ore; bars take a forge trip and the same bag slots.
- Keep every Malachite, Tigerseye and Shadowgem; post them one at a time on a weekend evening when engineers level.
- Leave the zone at 65. Tin veins at the zone edge are your signal that the Barrens, Westfall, Loch Modan and Silverpine will now pay twice as well.
Running it with ForeverBot
Open the Professions section, tick Mining under Skills and leave Remember nodes on: every vein you pass is logged, and the addon builds a short loop through the known nodes of the zone you are in, which for a starter zone means the full ring after one lap on foot. Keep Skip nodes above your skill checked until Mining 65 so a tin vein at the zone edge is not called as the next node, and read Nodes in zone, Next node and Nodes gathered in the Current status panel to see which zone is actually dense. For the mine tunnels, where you want to dictate the path, use the Farming section's Record loop with Go to a vendor when bags are full, Sell gray items and Auto loot switched on.
In Settings set the Navigator Route mode to shortest for the open rims of Mulgore and Durotar and to safest for the Durotar coast and the Agamand farms, and lower the Arrival radius to a few yards inside the mines so a vein on a ledge above the tunnel is not marked done early. Save one profile per zone, "Copper – Elwynn", "Copper – Dun Morogh" and so on, with Save profile, and press Start when you arrive. Which plan includes the Professions section is on the plans and pricing page; automation is against the game's terms of service and carries risk, so run it on characters you can afford to lose.
FAQ
Should I sell Copper Ore or smelt it into Copper Bars?
Check both prices on your realm first. Bars usually sell for a little more because crafters without Mining cannot smelt, but ore sells to miners who want the smelting skill points, and smelting costs a forge trip for no saving in bag space. Sell whichever is higher that week, and keep twenty bars for your own Blacksmithing or Engineering.
How long does Mining 1–65 take on copper?
Roughly two hours of one loop, or one lap each of two zones. Veins are orange to 25 and yellow to 50, so the first fifty points come from roughly fifty nodes, and smelting at a forge carries you the rest of the way in minutes. By then your character is level 10–12 and the tin veins at the zone edge are opening.
Which starter zone has the most copper?
Dun Morogh and Durotar, by a small margin: the Gol'Bolar quarry and the Valley of Trials hills both hold a dozen veins in a tight ring. Elwynn is the most crowded, Mulgore the emptiest, and the rim of Mulgore is the best place to mine in peace on a busy realm. The Alliance and Horde leveling routes pass every one of these mines on the way out.
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