Oldskool mining: Thorium

[stormcrowsix]

So, you are in need of money eh? Want some quick cash? Tired of farming the overfarmed saronite/cobalt/titanium? Feel like mining in a relaxed way without mobs attacking you every 2 minutes?

Maybe try this one out then...

Why Thorium ore?

Thorium ore was the highest lvl ore in Vanilla WoW...
Its, like every ore, used a lot by jewelcrafters, blacksmiths and engineers, and since people are still lvling alts they are still lvling professions, wich makes them in need of these.
Thorium veins also have a chance of dropping gems, that can be sold to JCs for lvling purposes!


Profits

After you have mined some thorium, you can chose to prospect it and sell the gems, you can sell it as bars or as raw thorium ore, and I would suggest the last one to make the most profit...

Thorium Ore
sells on my server for about 80G / stack
Wowhead notes a price of 40G / stack
Thorium Ore - Item - World of Warcraft

Arcane Crystal
sells for 6G on my server
Wowhead notes a price fo 3G
Arcane Crystal - Item - World of Warcraft

Large Opal
goes on my server for 35G
Wowhead notes a price of 15G
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12799




Azerothian diamond
sells for 30G on my server
Wowhead notes a price of 20G
Azerothian Diamond - Item - World of Warcraft

Huge Emerald
sells for 45G on my server
Wowhead notes a 20G price
Huge Emerald - Item - World of Warcraft

A Blue Sapphire
sells for 15G on my server
Wowhead notes a 10G price
Blue Sapphire - Item - World of Warcraft

For the prospecting people among us:
Prospecting thorium ore has a fairly big chance in giving you nice gems (see above) as a result. A stack of 60G can, if you are lucky, give you much more gold then that.

In numbers this mean that prospecting 5 ores gives you
23% Star Ruby
21% Large opal
21% Huge emerald
20% Azerothian Diamond
20% Blue Sapphire
0.4% Flame Spessarite
0.4% Golden draenite
0.4% Shadow draenite
0.4% Deep peridot
0.4% Blood garnet
0.4% Azure moonstone

May be worth the prospect, but I personally still prefer to sell the ores themself to make a steady income...


Where to mine it?

There are a few different veins that give these ores and gems. These all spawn in different locations all over Azeroth, some inside instances, some outside. You can chose these upon wich area you like, the characters level you do this on, ...
You chose the area that you like the most, whatever floats your boat

1. Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Vein

Where: Silithus
Outdoor/Instance: Outdoor
Remarks: Nice to farm thorium here, and combine it with farming Cenarion Circle rep.
Dismounting is not an issue here, so it goes pretty fast, but sometimes I find myself searching for respawned veins a bit too long
Where to find it: Ooze Covered Rich Thorium Vein - Object - World of Warcraft


2. Ooze Covered Thorium Vein

Where: Un'Goro Crater, Feralas
Outdoor/Instance: Outdoor
Remarks: Not worth the trouble, too few veins... You will encounter these when farming for Rich Thorium Veins though.
Where to find it: http://www.wowhead.com/?object=123848

3. Rich Thorium Vein

Where: Winterspring, Eastern Plaguelands, Azshara, Burning Steppes, Un'Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands, Dire Maul
Outdoor/Instance: Outdoor and indoor (Dire Maul)
Remarks:The most common thorium vein, the easiest to farm and you can find it nearly everywhere.
Winterspring is an option, the southern area with the demons packs a LOT of thorium veins, but the constant dismounting (by driving through the tunnes) can be really slowing you down.
Eastern Plaguelands is a really nice one once you get some sort of a route.
Azshara, Burning steppes, Ungoro Crater and Western Plaguelands are big no-no's for me; lots of small veins and slow respawn.
Dire Maul is awesome, just enter the east side, jump down and speak with the tree guy, and then just continue the road... You will have to kill one more boss, and then upon leaving the instance you will pass through a tunnel packing a few veins. Really usefull, fast and easy.
Where to find it: http://www.wowhead.com/?object=175404#comments

4. Small Thorium Vein

Skip these, we don't want the small veins... You will encounter them while farming the rich ones.

5. Hakkari Thorium Vein

These can only be found in ZG, and require to much hassle for the low number of veins there are. Skip them.


A few last words

Dude wtf, this is old shit... You copy/pasted old shit, blablabla.
No I didn't...
yes I knwo we are lvl 80 now cruising flying mounts in Northrend.
Why bother posting this then? I get thorium at the same rate as other miners get Saronite, but my stacks sell to 3 or 4 times their value...

This IS profitable, although its old. try it out and be amazed.

Edit: i have no idea why some links to wowhead work and others don't... My apologies for this

[Pala_BE]

Very nice guide! Cant rep

[stormcrowsix]

thanks for the kind words anyway! greatly appreciated

[Pala_BE]

^^ More than I get on my threads so at least im making someone happy

[grill]

Very well formated and good writen, i don't have an alt / main charactar with minning though.

Tho, it was good reading.

*Edit*

Just realised i can + rep apperntly... + Rep for an awesome post.

[Kranie far 1337]

Nice one +rep

[Ground Zero]

Heh, Nice Guide, Hope now people know this prices don't drop on my server, been doing this for ages since BC ^^. +Rep

[gtdarkside]

confirmed, even prices.
i recently leveled JC, and this part killed my wallet :P
+rep

[xollax]

this is sweet. will be handy for my new 60char on a new realm whitout my main there + rep

[cooper101]

This is a very good idea the only thing is you dont want to spam the AH with it then the price will drop +rep

[MooChan]

Nice dude + rep

[stormcrowsix]

thanks all for the kind words

[Lysolfs]

thx for the guide, in some days i'm gonna use it bcuz i made an alt with alchemy... transmuting arcanite is very profitable on my server (1x arcanite sells for 60g o.O) and im gonna need LOTS of thorium and that crystals...

[MatekFX]

On my server stack is 50g. In ~40min I farm 25-45 ore.

[Duplicity]

30~ gold per bar here.