Mining is a repetitive and fairly slow skill to train, especially for free players. Not only that, but it is often difficult to find a good location to train at because mining spots are often very crowded. The dwarven mines have many ore rocks and coal rocks to mine, but they are usually overcrowded with other players. The best mining area for fast experience is known as the “Hobgoblin Mine”. It is never crowded, because it is located in level 38 Wilderness, where you are in danger of being attacked by other players. It is recommended to have a combat level of at least 60 before trying this mining area. Also, if you would prefer to see a video format of this guide, it can be found here.
Getting to the Hobgoblin Mine can be a challenging feat if you plan on running through the wilderness. It is best to start in Lumbridge. Use the bank in the castle to withdraw 25 mining urns if you choose to do so – they provide a 20% boost to mining experience and they are they will last around an hour before banking again. After withdrawing the mining urns, leave the castle and go to the boat location in River Lum. Craft a “waka” and choose to row it to the wilderness. You will arrive in the fairly deep wilderness, and the hobgoblin mine is merely a straight run to the West.
The Hobgoblin mine is large, and there are many level 28 hobgoblins roaming the area. They will be aggressive for approximately ten minutes, and over that period of time that can do a considerable amount of damage, so avoid combat as much as possible. Heavy armor, such as rune, is effective at blocking most attacks, but it is a costly risk to bring into the wilderness. In the Northeastern part of the mine, there is a high concentration of iron ore rocks. These rocks also provide a small amount of protection from Hobgoblin attacks.
The technique is to mine the four iron rocks in the area, and to drop an ore from your inventory directly after a rock is mined. With practice, this cycle can be performed very quickly, and eventually you can work up to an impressive 55,000 mining experience per hour. When you run out of urns, simply run south to level 20 wilderness, cast the “home teleport” spell, and repeat. Banking trips can be done in under three minutes, making it worthwhile to take the bank trip for more urns. The only downside of this method is that the ores cannot be kept, but the lack of competition makes it well worth trying.
