Mithril Ore Farming in WoW Forever and Classic: Best Zones, Routes and Ore per Hour 

The best place to farm Mithril Ore in WoW Forever is The Hinterlands, the same as in WoW Classic: it has more Mithril Deposit spawn points than any other zone (89 in GatherMate2’s Wowhead data, with spots closer than 15 yards counted once), few competing ore types and flight points for both factions. WoW Forever keeps Classic’s node spawns in the original zones, so every spot and route below works in both games. Tanaris is the second choice if you also want Gold and, from Mining 245, Small Thorium. In Forever, the Badlands borders the new Riverglades zone (mid-30s to mid-40s), which makes it a handy Mithril loop while you level there, and Forever adds Scarce ores that drop while you mine and ore crates that take 20 Mithril Ore.

You need Mining 175 to gather Mithril Ore and to smelt it. On a quiet loop, expect roughly 50 to 90 ore per hour (our estimate, math below). Everything here applies to WoW Forever as well as Classic Era and Hardcore realms; the WoW Forever section near the end covers what Forever adds, and TBC Anniversary gets its own notes.

Updated November 6, 2026: ore counts now come from GatherMate2’s Wowhead data with duplicate records merged; Tanaris moves up to second for Mithril, ahead of Azshara. Updated November 3, 2026: now covers WoW Forever, which keeps Classic’s ore spawns. Updated September 25, 2026: rewritten with spawn counts for every zone, a new Hinterlands route, ore per hour estimates, and notes for Hardcore, TBC Anniversary and WoW Forever.

Quick Answer: Best Place to Farm Mithril in WoW Forever and Classic

The best Mithril zone in WoW Forever and WoW Classic depends on your level and on whether you want a second ore along the way:

• Best overall (level 45+): The Hinterlands. Most veins in the zone are Mithril, and Truesilver shows up in the same spots.
• Best mixed farm: Tanaris. Slightly fewer Mithril spawns, but Gold Veins and Small Thorium Veins on the same loop.
• Level 35 to 45 characters: Badlands or Arathi Highlands. Mithril plus Iron, with mobs you can handle.
• Level 50+ with Mining 230 or more: Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes or Felwood. Fewer Mithril nodes, but Truesilver (230) and Small Thorium (245) make up for it.
• Horde and Alliance: every zone above has a flight point for both factions except Badlands (Horde only at Kargath).

Best Zones for Mithril Farming, Ranked by Spawn Points

The Hinterlands has the most Mithril Deposit spawn points in WoW Classic, followed by Tanaris, Azshara and Desolace. The table uses distinct spawn spots from GatherMate2’s Wowhead data for the Mithril Deposit (two Wowhead records within 15 yards count as one spot, so the numbers are lower than on Wowhead’s own page) and the vanilla zone levels; classicdb lists far fewer spawn points (28 for the Hinterlands), because its counts miss pooled spawns. Spawn points are possible locations, not nodes that are up at once, and Mithril shares many of them with Truesilver, Gold and Thorium.

Azshara ties Desolace for third but is remote and spread out, so it rarely beats Tanaris per hour. Burning Steppes ranks low on Mithril but has 86 Truesilver spawn points, the fifth most in the game, which makes it a better money farm than its Mithril count suggests. Western Plaguelands (27), Dustwallow Marsh (24), Alterac Mountains (23), Silithus and Winterspring (21 each) and the Swamp of Sorrows (19) also have Mithril but aren’t in the table.

Which Mithril Route for Your Level and Faction

Pick a Mithril route by character level first and Mining skill second: from 230 the higher zones add Truesilver, and from 245 Thorium.

If you are still leveling Mining itself, Mithril Deposits are orange (a guaranteed skill point) from 175, yellow from 200 and green from 225, according to Icy Veins. Mine Mithril until about 230, pick up Truesilver from 230, and switch to Small Thorium Veins at 245. Our Thorium farming routes for WoW Classic pick up from there.

Hinterlands Mithril Route

The Hinterlands mithril route is a loop along the edges of the zone, because Mithril Deposits there sit on the hills and ridges around the central meadow, not in the open grass. Start at Aerie Peak (Alliance) or Revantusk Village on the east coast (Horde); direction doesn’t matter.

1. From Aerie Peak, ride south into the hills on the western edge and follow them east to the Altar of Zul.
2. Check the ridge around the Altar of Zul, then dip south past the lakes west of Jintha’Alor, where several nodes sit close together.
3. Cross to the eastern hills and ride south to the coast, then north along the ridge above Revantusk Village.
4. Follow the river west to Skulk Rock. The cave there has several spawn points and only non-elite oozes inside.
5. Return west along the northern hills to Aerie Peak.

A full lap takes about 20 to 25 minutes on a 60% mount (our estimate). Skip Seradane in the north: it is an elite area full of green dragonkin well above the rest of the zone. Jintha’Alor itself is packed with Vilebranch trolls at the top of the zone’s level range, so below level 50 mine only its outer edges.

Tanaris Mithril Route

The Tanaris mithril route circles the edge of the desert, since almost all Mithril, Gold and Small Thorium spawns in Tanaris are in the rocky hills around the dunes. Start and end in Gadgetzan, which has a flight point for both factions, and spend most of your time in the southern half, where the spawns are densest.

Tanaris has 79 Mithril, 106 Gold and 18 Small Thorium spawn points, which makes it a strong mixed ore zone. Below level 60, skip the caves along the route: WoW-Professions marks four caves as too dangerous for lower-level players. The Noxious Lair, the silithid hive in southwestern Tanaris, is one of the few places with Iron, Mithril and Truesilver together.

Badlands and Arathi Highlands: Mithril and Iron

Badlands and Arathi Highlands are the best mithril farming zones for characters between level 35 and 45, and they give Iron Ore on the same loop, which sells well to leveling blacksmiths and engineers. Badlands has 51 Mithril spawn points and Arathi Highlands 33, mostly in the southwest and in the cave east of Hammerfall. For a pure Iron farm, see our Iron Ore farming guide for Classic WoW.

In Badlands, leave out the eastern end if you are under 45. Lethlor Ravine is home to black dragonkin and is listed as an elite area. Horde players can start at Kargath; Alliance players have no flight point in Badlands and walk in from Thelsamar in Loch Modan.

Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes and Felwood: Mithril with Thorium

Searing Gorge, Burning Steppes and Felwood are the Mithril zones for level 50 to 60 characters with Mining 230 or more, because they add Truesilver (and Small Thorium from 245) to every lap. Searing Gorge (41 Mithril, 57 Truesilver spawn points) is compact and has a flight point at Thorium Point for both factions. Burning Steppes has few Mithril spawns but the caves of Dreadmaul Rock, the Firegut ogre hill in the east, are full of ore; skip them if you don’t want to fight.

Felwood uses its own Mithril Deposit object (36 spawn points) that can also contain Tainted Vitriol while you carry a Cenarion Beacon. Blasted Lands has 36 Mithril spawns, as many as Felwood, and herbalists pick up Gromsblood there, so it works as a combined loop:

The Garrison Armory mine in Blasted Lands has Mithril and Truesilver Deposits that only Horde players can mine, according to Warcraft Wiki.

Mithril Ore per Hour (Estimates)

Realistic Mithril Ore per hour in WoW Classic is about 50 to 90 on a quiet loop and 25 to 40 when other miners share your zone. No site publishes measured rates, so these are our estimates from two assumptions: how many deposits you reach per hour, and about 2.5 ore per deposit.

Treat Truesilver and gems as a bonus. Truesilver Deposits replace Mithril or Thorium spawns at random, and the gems from Mithril Deposits (Aquamarine, Citrine, Star Ruby, Black Vitriol) are very rare in Classic. Solid Stone drops often and sells to engineers and blacksmiths. The biggest gain is switching zones: if you meet another miner twice on a loop, go to your second-best zone instead of racing them.

Smelting Mithril and What It Is Used For

Mithril Ore is smelted into Mithril Bars one to one at any forge, which needs Mining 175. Truesilver Ore needs Mining 230 to mine and to smelt. Mithril Ore stacks to 20 on Classic Era, and so do the bars.

Demand for Mithril comes mostly from crafters in the 200 to 260 skill range:

• Engineering: Mithril Tubes, Unstable Triggers and Mithril Casings (for Hi-Explosive Bombs and more), plus the Mithril Mechanical Dragonling, Mithril Heavy-Bore Rifle, Gnomish Battle Chicken and Goblin Mortar.
• Blacksmithing: Heavy Mithril and Ornate Mithril armor, the Mithril Coif, Mithril Spurs (a mount speed bonus for boots) and Truesilver pieces such as Truesilver Champion.
• Alchemy: Lesser Stoneshield Potions use the ore, and Transmute: Mithril to Truesilver uses the bar.

Sell whichever form is higher on your Auction House; bars often sell for a little more. Prices depend on the realm: Mithril sells well on fresh or crowded servers while engineers and blacksmiths level, and lower on old Classic Era realms.

Mithril Ore Farming in WoW Forever: What Changes

Mithril farming in WoW Forever uses the zones and routes on this page unchanged: Forever keeps Classic’s node spawns in the original zones, and Mithril Deposits still need Mining 175. The changes are around the veins:

• Scarce ores: Pyrite, Bauxite and Pitchblende drop as extras while you mine, per Zockify’s beta data. Which veins drop which is unknown; their item levels (25, 45 and 60) point to low, mid and top-tier veins, our estimate. The Legacy perk Bountiful Harvest adds 20% more Scarce materials per rank in the beta client (see our WoW Forever Legacy System guide).
• Ore crates: the Expert Waylaid Crate takes 20 Mithril Ore and the Expert ingot crate 20 Mithril Bars, paid in Merchant’s Favor, the recipe currency (Zockify’s beta data; the client sets level 20).
• Demand: by our count one Blacksmith needs 338 Mithril Bars and one Engineer 133 on the way to 300, the biggest ore need before Artisan. We expect Mithril to sell best in the second and third week after the November 4 launch, once crafters reach skill 175.
• No skill from smelting: in the beta client, Smelt Mithril is grey as soon as you can mine the ore, so smelting no longer raises Mining at this stage.
• The Riverglades: Forever’s new zone for the mid-30s to mid-40s borders the Badlands. Which ores spawn in the Riverglades itself is unknown.

Spawn counts on this page come from GatherMate2’s Wowhead data, the same as in our WoW Forever ore farming guide. Read them as a ranking of where to look, not as nodes standing at once. That guide also covers every other ore, Scarce ores and ore crates. Our WoW Forever mining leveling guide covers Mining 1 to 300, and our WoW Forever mount guide has the riding cost if you mine for your first mount.

Classic Era, Hardcore and TBC Anniversary Notes

Mithril spawn points are the same on Classic Era, Hardcore and TBC Anniversary realms; what changes is danger and competition.

• Hardcore: stay out of Seradane in The Hinterlands, Lethlor Ravine in Badlands and the Tanaris caves until you out-level them. Arathi and Badlands loops are the safest start.
• Classic Era: fewer miners, so the higher per-hour numbers are more realistic, but prices are lower too.
• TBC Anniversary: the old-world routes work the same, and a level 70 can ignore most mobs. Flying mounts don’t work in Azeroth in TBC, so you still ride. Jewelcrafters can prospect Mithril Ore from skill 175 for Citrine, Aquamarine and Star Ruby, which keeps Mithril in demand. For the full skill path to 375, see our TBC Mining leveling guide.

FAQ

Where is the best place to farm Mithril in WoW Forever?

The Hinterlands, the same as in WoW Classic, because Forever keeps Classic’s node spawns. Tanaris is the better pick if you want Gold and Thorium on the same loop, and the Badlands if you level in the new Riverglades next door.

What skill do you need to mine Mithril in WoW Classic?

Mining 175, both to mine Mithril Deposits and to smelt the ore into bars. Truesilver Deposits, which spawn in the same places, need Mining 230.

Is Tanaris or The Hinterlands better for Mithril?

The Hinterlands is better for Mithril alone, with 89 spawn points to Tanaris’s 79 and fewer other ores competing for them. Tanaris is better if you also want Gold and Thorium on the same loop.

Is Maraudon a good Mithril farm?

No. Maraudon has only a handful of Mithril spawn points, so it is worth mining while you run the dungeon, not as a dedicated farm.

Where do you farm Mithril in TBC Classic?

In the same old-world zones as in Classic, usually The Hinterlands or Tanaris. Outland has no Mithril; its first ore is Fel Iron.

Sources: spawn counts from GatherMate2’s Wowhead data (GatherMate2 Data add-on, October 17, 2026 file) and ClassicDB, Warcraft Wiki on the Mithril Deposit, Truesilver Deposit, Mithril Bar and Thorium Point, and route guides from WoW-Professions, Gold Goblin, Icy Veins and Warcraft Tavern. Maps: Blizzard Entertainment (Hinterlands and Tanaris in-game maps).