Prospecting

From WoWWiki

	Jewelcrafting (Profession)
	Ingredients • Proficiencies • Quests • Recipes • Trainers

Prospecting
Prospecting 2 sec cast Search 5 ore of a base metal for precious gems. This will destroy the ore in the process.
Usable by
Class	All
Properties
Type	N/A
School	N/A
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Other information
Requirements	Level 5, Jewelcrafting (20)

Prospecting is a Jewelcrafting ability which allows gathering of gems from raw ore, which is obtained via the Mining skill. Five ore of the same type are consumed per prospecting attempt and produce 1-3 gems, with the most common result being a single gem prospected. The gems acquired are of types which could be found mining a mineral node of the type of ore consumed. For example, prospecting [Iron Ore] can produce [Jade] and [Citrine], which would normally be found on an iron node. Each prospect also produces 1 powder of the appropriate metal, for example prospecting [Fel Iron] gives you [Fel Iron Powder].

Only common ores can be prospected. [Dark Iron Ore] and quest ores that are not used in crafting cannot be prospected.

Training

Requires: Level 5, Jewelcrafting (20)

Cost: 1 

Results

Prospecting, like disenchanting, can be boiled down to a fairly simple set of rules. When ore is prospected the results fall into three probabilities:

• Powder - Every prospect will yield this junk item. It's vendor trash, sell it off.

  [Adamantite Powder] is not junk, however, and is used to create [Mercurial Adamantite], which is used by many recipes.

• Common gems - Each ore has a set of gems that result from the majority of attempts. Every gem in an ore's common results has the same probability of being found.

  Sometimes 2 of the gems in this group are found.

  [Star Ruby] from [Thorium Ore] is an exception to this rule; its drop rate is higher than the other common gems found in [Thorium Ore]

• Uncommon gems - Each ore has a set of rare result gems. Like the common gems, each gem in this group share the same probability of being found in the target ore.

Note that prospecting ore will never grant a skill point in Jewelcrafting.

Ore	Skill	Common Gems	Uncommon Gems
[Copper Ore]	20	[Tigerseye] (50%)	[Shadowgem] (10%)
		[Malachite] (50%)
[Tin Ore]	50	[Shadowgem] (37.5%)	[Citrine] (3.33%)
		[Lesser Moonstone] (37.5%)	[Jade] (3.33%)
		[Moss Agate] (37.5%)	[Aquamarine] (3.33%)
[Iron Ore]	125	[Citrine] (30%)	[Aquamarine] (5%)
		[Lesser Moonstone] (30%)	[Star Ruby] (5%)
		[Jade] (30%)
[Mithril Ore]	175	[Citrine] (30%)	[Azerothian Diamond] (2.5%)
		[Star Ruby] (30%)	[Blue Sapphire] (2.5%)
		[Aquamarine] (30%)	[Large Opal] (2.5%)
			[Huge Emerald] (2.5%)
[Thorium Ore]	250	[Star Ruby] (30%)	[Blood Garnet] (1.66%)
		[Large Opal] (16%)	[Flame Spessarite] (1.66%)
		[Blue Sapphire] (16%)	[Golden Draenite] (1.66%)
		[Huge Emerald] (16%)	[Deep Peridot] (1.66%)
		[Azerothian Diamond] (16%)	[Azure Moonstone] (1.66%)
			[Shadow Draenite] (1.66%)
[Fel Iron Ore]	275	[Blood Garnet] (17%)	[Living Ruby] (1%)
		[Flame Spessarite] (17%)	[Noble Topaz] (1%)
		[Golden Draenite] (17%)	[Dawnstone] (1%)
		[Deep Peridot] (17%)	[Talasite] (1%)
		[Azure Moonstone] (17%)	[Star of Elune] (1%)
		[Shadow Draenite] (17%)	[Nightseye] (1%)
[Adamantite Ore]	325	[Blood Garnet] (19%)	[Living Ruby] (3%)
		[Flame Spessarite] (19%)	[Noble Topaz] (3%)
		[Golden Draenite] (19%)	[Dawnstone] (3%)
		[Deep Peridot] (19%)	[Talasite] (3%)
		[Azure Moonstone] (19%)	[Star of Elune] (3%)
		[Shadow Draenite] (19%)	[Nightseye] (3%)

All the percentages in this table were derived from data at Wowhead

More than one gem can be found on each prospect, so these numbers don't add up to 100%!

Recently there has been a bug where, while prospecting, the looting window lags and deletes the ore, gems, and powder.

Notes

Patch 2.1.0 (5/22/07): Prospecting now always yields at least 1 gem.