Okay, this is my tactic, I go mostly on gold, but do gems before i try and get a good new pick.
So for gold i go to the ore with the Biggest Auto g/s, this is because it shows the most efficient ore to mine, as the auto G/s takes into account your power, and the ore hp and defence etc... afetr you have done this for a while and upgraded your blacksmith, find the highest ore that you can one hit kil so to speak, and spam until you have a few hundered gems. then spam the pick making button, until you get a great pick. the highest quality i ever got was 2534% quality. so it is possible to get really good if you spam long enough.
+1 this so people see it.
hope it helps.
i was looking for a free little web game like eve, couldn't find one, and here we are :)