Mining is the excavation of ores, stones and gems from mineral-rich veins which can then be used to create weapons, armour and other items or sell in their raw form to blacksmiths and engineers. It is a Secondary Gathering profession. You seek a Mining Trainer who will train you as an Apprentice Miner. You can locate the Trainers and Suppliers in the following area. You train to four levels of proficiency and each has certain prerequisites that you need to meet before you are able to progress to the next level of proficiency. There are no character level requirements for Mining (or any Gathering skill for that matter).
Once you have trained as an Apprentice you will have two support skills. 'Find Minerals' and 'Smelt'. These are both located in your 'Skills and Abilities' book (Hot key P) and you can drag them down to your action bars for quick access.
How do I find Minerals?
Veins and deposits can contain more than one mineral, for example a copper mine may also contain some rough stone or Shadowgems. Veins are located in mountain crevices or jutting out from the side of hills or inside mines/caverns or even under water. Veins can contain minerals such as copper, stone, tin, silver, iron, gold, mithirl, Tigerseye, Shadowgem, Moss Agate and Jade. You can print out the following resource maps which will help you locate ore veins to mine.
The codes follow:
What the vein contains isn't set according to who is Mining it. If it's copper, it's copper for everyone and it will always spawn {reappear}. Each time your level rises it'll be displayed in the left hand chat area. 'Your skill in Mining has increased to 31' for example. You can check what level of proficiency you have by checking your skills tab in your Character screen (hot key C). How do I Mine?
This is a good way for parties of miners to each get a mining skill point from a vein as you can take it in turns to mine the vein, get awarded your Mining skill point, leave the loot and then let the next Miner have a go at the vein and also get a Mining Skill point. The same as it works in Herbalism when gathering herbs from a bush. What do I do with the Minerals I have mined?
The ore you Mine will need to be smelt into a usable state and this ability is given to you automatically when you become an Apprentice Miner. You will need to be by a Forge to smelt your ore. These are usually located near a Mining Trainer or Supplier { look at the list at the top of the page}. Once by a Forge {you only need to stand next to it} right click the icon you see on the left here which you'll find in your 'Skills & Abilities' book. This will bring up a list of the smelting recipes you have learnt {recipes cost money from a Mining Trainer}. You are automatically given the 'Smelt Copper' recipe when you become an Apprentice Miner. You can see from the details on this shot there are three options when smelting. You can smelt individual lumps of ore into bars or 'Create All' which will smelt the entire stock of the selected or use the numerical box to smelt the desired quantity.
Ore can only stack up to 10 lumps whereas bars can stack up to 20 so it makes sense to smelt as soon as possible. Also, you get twice as much money at vendors for a lump of metal than for its ore equivalent ( i.e 5 copper for a lump of copper ore but 10 copper if you smelt it into a bar). Forges Forges are usually located near Trainers { look at the list at the top of the page} but occasionally they won't and listed below are such instances.
The table below details the 'recipes' you can purchase from Mining Trainers and the Mining level you need to be before you can purchase the recipe.
What do I do with all my metal and gems now? Well you can sell them to vendors (not so good) or you can sell them to other players (much better choice) or you can trade them with other players for other items. The third option is to train as a Blacksmith and use the things you mine to forge weapons, armor and other things. To recap on the Mining basics:
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What is Mining?
Before you begin you need to buy a mining pick which can be bought from a Mining Supplier. These are located nearby Mining Trainers. You'll need to keep this in your backpack at all times and do not need to equip it to use. You can not use it from your Bank. 
Once you have trained as an Apprentice Miner you will find the Rank 1 'Find Minerals' icon on the left in your 'Skills and Abilities' book (Hot key P). You should drag this to your action bar ready for use when you're out playing. Once 'Find Minerals' has been activated ore/stone veins above ground and below water will show up your minimap as bright yellow dots {right image}. Dull yellow dots indicate a mine is underground, in a tunnel or cave. If you hover your cursor over the yellow dot it will tell you the type of mine it is. 
The colour of the text 'Requires Mining' when hovering over a vein indicates whether you are likely to gain a point in Mining when you harvest it. As you rise in skill level this text colour will change for all veins eventually until only the most precious of ores will increase your skill level. Once you hit skill level 300 nothing will increase it as that's the max cap. 
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