Guides:Mining Skill Tips
Mining
You will want a relatively low ql pick with as much Circle of Cunning on it as possible, this will give a lot of skill if you mine rock shards with it as it heightens the difficulty and the mine time, its the mine time that improves the skill gain in mining, longer mine time = more skill #.
Mining rock shards is easier for a new player up to a decent skill level (20 -30?) but from then on if you want to grind mining I would suggest mining on an ore vein. At around 30 skill, mining iron may be the best option for you, but as you get up to around 40 or even 50 in mining, you should mine Gold or Silver.
I would not recommend you start off mining on gold or silver because you are very unlikely to get any ore above ql 1.00 (Mining a ql 1.00 ore/shard gives no skillgain whatsoever).
You want to mine shard/ore about 1 half of your actual skill, so say you have 50 mining, you want to be mining 25ql rocks or ore. This means you have a 50% chance of mining a full ql (your mining skill) and failing (1ql). Try to not mine capped walls lower than your skill.
# There is actually some disagreement about this. Some people are of the opinion that the extra mining actions with a fast pick make up for the loss of skillgain due to short timers. There is also a 3rd camp which believes that it makes little difference which method you prefer & that skillgain will be about the same if you spend the same total amount of time mining. If this is the case, then how many shards (or how much ore) you want at the end of your mining session might be more important.)