Gold mine


 * Gold mine may also refer to the battleground objective. You may also be looking for Initiate Goldmine, the goblin shaman

Gold mines are, as their name implies, outcroppings of rock where gold ore can be found and collected. In WC1, WC2 and WC3 they are neutral buildings whom worker units can gather gold from. The gathered gold is then, in addition to lumber, used as a "currency" to build buildings, train units and purchase items. As such, gold mines are extremely important to achieve victory. Even the AI used to control player teams in WC3 has been programmed to protect gold mines that's being mined by placing soldier units nearby.

Human Description
King Llane has sent many a surveyor into the hills and mountains throughout the kingdom in search of new deposits of gold. You may discover one of these sites, and find that there are still veins of the precious metal to be mined. Peasants can be trained in the skills required to mine and deliver this gold to your Town Hall for disbursement as you see fit.

Orc Description
Some rock faces hold deposits of gold. You will recognize them because Blackhand has sent searchers out, and any that were located will have an entry way clearly marked. Peons will mine these holes and deliver the gold to your Town Hall for disbursement as you see fit.

Warcraft II


Like in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, gold is still used as a primary resource by both the Alliance and the Horde, and can only be mined by Alliance Peasants or Horde Peons.

Warcraft III


The Gold Mine of Warcraft III is the same as the gold mines of previous Warcraft games: A node from where the Gold resource is collected. Peasants and Peons collect them in the same manner as the previous games, by traveling back and forth between the mine and a drop-off point. The Undead and Night Elf factions, however, can only collect them under specific conditions.

The Undead must first "haunt" a gold mine, once it is completed, up to five Acolytes can attach themselves around the mine to harvest the gold. The Haunted Gold Mine, like the Necropolis, does not require blight in order to be built.

The Night Elves must "entangle" a gold mine with vines. This is achieved by building or moving a Tree of Life next to a Gold Mine and, once at the site, it will automatically entangle the mine. Once it is finished, Wisps may attach themselves to the Entangled Gold Mine and begin harvesting.

Note: The Entanglement around the mine will disappear if the Tree of Life next to it is destroyed or moved away.

World of Warcraft
As World of Warcraft is based on the previous Warcraft games, gold mines make an appearance. Gold in WoW is however not gathered from gold mines (although you can sell items you find in them for gold), which causes gold mines to be more a environmental doodad rather than a interactive unit.

Here is a list of subzones in WoW that are gold mines: (may be incomplete)
 * Night Web's Hollow
 * Venture Co. Mine
 * Skittering Dark
 * Gold Mine (Arathi Basin)
 * Azurelode Mine
 * Echo Ridge Mine