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Does Ore Respawn in Skyrim?

Does Ore Respawn in Skyrim?

If you’ve been mining in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for ores and precious gems, there is a good chance you might be wondering whether the ore you have just farmed will respawn or not. Knowing the answer to that question can help you strategize your future mining runs.

Yes, Ore does respawn in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. If you fully mine a vein, it will take about 28-30 days to respawn all of its ores. You will always get 3 ores per vein in Skyrim, no matter what type of ore it is.

Let’s take a look at the different types of ores you can mine in Skyrim, how long they take to respawn and what are they used for in this detailed guide.

Types of Ore Veins

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim lets you mine precious gems and different types of Ores using a pickaxe and then use them for different crafting purposes. You can even sell mined ores and makes some quick money with it.

Ore Veins can be easily located inside mines and near rocky places. Most mines in Skyrim house one or more than one kind of ore veins.

Ebony Ore Vein in Skyrim
Ebony Ore Vein in Skyrim

Before we talk about the ore respawn times in Skyrim, let us take a look at the different types of ores available in the game.

  • Corundum Ore –  Used to make steel ingots
  • Ebony Ore – Used to make Ebony, Daedric, & Nordic Carved Armor
  • Geode Vein- Used to produce other ores, precious gems, and soul gems
  • Gold Ore – Can be melted to form gold ingots
  • Iron Ore – Can be melted to form iron ingots
  • Malachite Ore – Used to improve the toughness of glass armor and weapons
  • Moonstone Ore – This ore can be used to refine your weapons and armor
  • Orichalcum Ore – Used to craft orichalcum ingots and other orc gear
  • Quicksilver Ore – Can be melted to form quicksilver ingots
  • Silver Ore – This ore is widely used in making jewelry and silver ingots

How To Fill Soul Gems in Skyrim?

Iron Ore
Iron Ore

So let’s say you plan on finding and mining one or some of these ores in Skyrim. Then you might be wondering how long they take to respawn and that’s exactly what we’ll look at next.

How Fast Does Ore Respawn?

There are 10 major ore veins you’ll find across the gigantic map of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and no matter which one you go to mine, it will drop you 3 ores/vein. And once you’ve fully mined a vein, it will take around 28-30 in-game days for it to respawn again. 

If you mined it partially, then the ores will come back after 10 days. As you can see, it’s probably best that you always mine each vein partially. That way you’ll be getting a fresh respawn of ores every 10 days and keep on mining faster.


To sum things up, Yes!, ore does respawn in Skyrim after every 28-30 days if you fully mined the vein and 10 days if you partially mined it. All veins drop 3 ores no matter what type of ore you are going after. There are 10 types of ores you can mine in Skyrim; each with its unique uses.