So I've restored Raven Rock mine and everbody keeps telling me to help myself to all the ore I want, but none of the ebony veins are ever active. Is this a bug, or are you ever supposed to be able to mine ebony ore inside there? I'd hate to have to keep traveling back to Gloombound Mine for my ebony needs (I always seem to do something wrong in there, getting into trouble with tribal orcs).

Have you mined it already? Maybe it hasn't respawned. Also, I have the problem with mining after it respawns with some of the ore veins. Could be the same problem?

No, I never mined it in the first place. The target vein is never active, and the graphic looks like a depleted vein. I just now saw on Elder Scrolls Wiki that Raven Rock should be a valid ebony ore location. I just went into Gloombound mine and although all the veins were showing respawned ebony, only half were active. This has happened a lot to me throughout various mines where I have to exit and re-enter the mine, although when I tried to leave Gloombound, the game hung.

XBOX 360 with Dragonborn DLC, but the mine issue has been happening since even before the Dawnguard DLC. At least the iron ore vein out front of Lakeside(view?) Manor finally respawned -- that's been several months.

Oh, you have to wait until the new miners go into the mine, then it opens up. Apparently everyone has had this problem. It took me a few in days for them to go in.

The old exhausted veins never change in the Raven Rock mine, fresh veins appear after the mine reopens.

One problem ive faced is shortage of stalhrim, and when you ask the skaal blacksmith he says RRM has some but ive never seen it

All the miners have been in the mine for several days. Exhausted veins never respawn. The mine has been reopened for a long time now. The NPCs have told me to take as much ebony as I want as I stated in the OP. This is obviously a bug. I need to check my stalhrim source to see if it respawned yet (I've mined it twice now), but it seems like it's been too long since it respawned since the last mining.

More likely you are just not staying away long enough for it to respawn, or you are just not looking in the right place.

I think it's only available at the unmarked location in the mountains. I don't recall it in RRM.

I figured at least 26 days in game was long enough for anything to respawn. And for that matter, it's technically not a respawn since I was never able to mine anything in the first place. And I have searched the entire mine and know what depleted veins look like, so I am looking exactly in the right places.

Also, there is one source of stalhrim in RRM in the standing coffin approx. halfway through the dungeon.

There are two sources of stalhrim in RRM, the other is behind the waterfall further in. And those used veins of ore are never going to change, the ebony was all gone in the old mine, you are looking for the NEW veins some of which are past the blocked off area where the boards are. You are going to have to look harder. And it usually takes 30 days for such things to respawn, so once you eventually find the ore you should wait 31 days.

Thanks aussie! Will look when I can take a break

I went past the blocked off area and still no luck. I'm assuming you're talking about the new side rooms where the miners go to dig. Also I found this thread indicating there may be a bug at work:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=405967

If there is none in the new areas then, you are not going to get any. Can you mine ebony ore in other locations? I remember going up and getting that enchanted pickaxe at the Throat of the World at an early level with one character, and being disappointed I could not get any ebony. It had never occurred to me before that it might be level dependent. Either that or there is something about that location, the fourth character will be heading up there for the first time soon, will try again.