I never thought what you got from mining would be worth the extra weight of carrying a pick. Then I tried carrying one with me always.. It's great. Not so much for the ore but for the gems. A great way to make money. I get an iron ingot, use a spell to convert it to silver, use a forge to make silver rings and then jeweled rings, enchant them with a petty soul gem and instant riches. I don't even bother enchanting other items for sale. Even better with Skyrim Immersive Creatures the Ore Spirit that sometime attacks when you mine is fun.

I really like mining. My characters are generally pretty strapped for cash so being able to dig up stuff and forge/enchant it into something valuable is really handy. I usually make my Dremora Butler carry my pickaxe though.

I don't mine, just foraging through dungeons sees me loaded down with gems, many more than mining gets me

It's great for RPing though. I had a few characters that didn't pick up larger objects (like weapons and armor), and only one extra weapon was allowed. Some of those carried a pick as an extra, and gems were a great source for making money.

I like mining its a change from the regular maybe not so much the regular iron though if I come across a vein I'll pick it up but the rarer stuff like orichalcum and ebony especially is well worth it.

Mining is most relevant if you level smiting or you are building an hearthfire house, not so much for loot.

Yes. But this post is about how mining is just awesome for gems, and its not really.

Mining is great and I've done it on most characters.


I was doing it less on my current thief character becuase I use alchemy to make money, BUT then I found a mod that lets you get soul gems from mining! Well that makes sense right!? Where else do they come from?

...From mining geodes in Blackreach?

Yep, geode veins in Blackreach yield all kinds of soul gems. Well...the ones that aren't bugged anyway.

Did you know you can further convert the silver ores to gold ore with the same spell? There are also small amounts of gem geode veins on Solstheim (Dragonborn DLC) specifically for gems

The problem with doing that can be that the gems no longer go with the metal. Many of the gems you get from mining make silver items, rather than gold.

Okay, so you can't use regular amethysts to make jeweled necklaces and you can't use flawless amethysts to make amethyst rings, but gold still yields more sale value in general. It's kind of hard to make all your iron ore just silver ore anyway. You convert the iron ore to silver ore and then when you cast the spell again it's gold ore. How do you stop the spell so it first converts all your iron ore to silver or before it proceeds to changing the silver to gold ore? To do that is a bit of a nuisance work around, AFAIK.

You need to drop the silver ore as you create it. It only affects your inventory.

This is mainly how I approach mining. I made one character who whose occupation was Miner. She mined ore all over Skyrim and sold the ore to Smiths. She didn't do a single Bethesda quest: mining was her "main quest" in that game. It was a very fun character to play.

That's still a lot of menu open and closing

Mining can be fun.

I sometimes like to give my characters a profession and they are only part time adventurers. Some might be loggers, some might be miners, some might be hunters, some might be town/village guards, etc.

Quite often my characters never pick up any loot since they feel that one or more of the great divines will be angry and curses the character.

Mining can earn a quite decent income.

My burning question is why is there not a slider for smelting?!


I have to hit 'e' for every individual bar and hear that loud sound effect over and over and over again!

My assumption: Because there is also no slider for alchemy-potions. And there is no slider for potions since you get experience with every potion, so the second can be stronger then the first.

My personal experience: If you want to play a mage, like a Nightblade, you need money to buy spells.

Mining and Alchemy is the start to get money!

What to enchant depends later on where to sell. A smith will buy enchanted weapon and armor, and a mage enchanted clothes and jewels. So, at the mage-college, you want to have a lot of rings and necklace. Inside cities like Whiterun, it is better to enchant daggers and other weapons.

Also, the enchanting is important. Muffle and Waterbreathing are mostly independent from the used soul-gem. Otherwise, enchanted weapons make the best profit with lower souls.

So in the end: Yes, every one of my chars carry a pickax around, to use it on iron-, silver- or gold-mines.

Most of my characters always carry a pickaxe for mining - Mostly used for building the hearthfire houses.

Sometimes I don't feel like doing any quests. At those times, I grab my pick and head out to look for ore veins. I never have been able to memorize where they all are so it's always new to me. It can be really fun if I leave all my weapons and armor at home and have nothing but my pick when a random dragon drops by.

I like mining while singing "Man of constant sorrow."

The important thing is to wear http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78296

That same spell turns Silver into Gold, btw....