You can gather from level 11

What people say

It depends on who you read. In Korea, NCSOFT raised the minimum gathering level to 45 to slow down bots, and some English guides treat that as in effect on global too. Others, written during early access, mention level 10.

What happens

At level 11, heading out of Verteron, you can gather normally: walk up to the node, press F and extraction starts. The Korean lock isn’t in the global client.

Every node type levels the same mastery bar, so it doesn’t matter whether it’s ore, a gem or fish.

What to do

Gather whatever is on your way while you do the story. No need to go out of your way: half an hour of quests already gets you more than ten mastery levels.