Ore Veins (Skyrim)

Main article: Ore

Ore Veins are mounds of rock that may be mined with a pickaxe to receive a particular ore. Each type of vein has a slightly different color, depending on the ore inside, and typically yields two to three pieces of ore, as well as a random gemstone on rare occasions.

Locations

Ore veins are typically found in mines and tunnels, but are also scattered around the map in open rocky areas and in some select other dungeons. Some veins blend in with the surrounding rock and may be difficult to find.

Ore varieties

Gallery

Trivia

Ore veins typically respawn every thirty in-game days.
A method that may be used to replenish ore veins faster is if the Dragonborn comes back to a depleted ore vein after a week, and the ore vein appears replenished but no dialogue for mining appears, find a house/cave/mine nearby, enter it, exit it (if already in a mine, exit it and re-enter it) then go back to the ore vein and the dialogue for mining will appear.

Bugs

PC 360 PS3 Sometimes ore veins don't respawn.
PC 360 PS3 When the mining animation starts, no messages for receiving the ore will be displayed and the Dragonborn will continue to mine indefinitely unless interrupted. This can be fixed by equipping the pickaxe and manually mining the ore vein. Sometimes this is caused by local characters heading to the deposit to mine it. Killing these people will prevent this from happening.
Occasionally, one will not be able to mine ore veins, despite them not being depleted. This is due to either a glitch or the timer has not completed yet. One way to solve this is to enter the location, check the ore deposits and if they cant be mined immediately leave the location (exit the mine/dungeon) wait outside for a few hours, then return. This should fix the glitch and the ore will be able to be mined.
When a depleted ore vein is revisited after a few in-game days, it will have lost cohesion and the Dragonborn can walk through it.

Appearances

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim