Even with randomized ore, it should only take a week or so to get any talisman from mining.
The Champ spawn changes have made it to where scales for the Anthromorphist glasses aren't that hard (6 each from the serpentine dragon scales, then 9 each from the WW many kill to get their karma back up - not to mention, the drakes & dragons from doing Rikktor, and Rikktor's OWN 120 scales). Fishing is also good for scales (8 per serpent). Most of the champ spawns also give leather that will go to the same donation as the ingots (in fact, if you don't mind karma loss, spined, horned and barbed are ALL available from the Oaks spawn level 2-4).
Check the new Tailor Essay (plug, plug) for the updated leather lists.
When I do the treasure hunter donations, I donate most level 4-6 maps undone (I only do level 6s on 3 specific islands - ones that have both a presence of healers, and a low-spawn/absence of giant serpents). What maps I do, levels 1-6, I donate the completed maps, the GOLD from the maps (including that of the spawn), and the gold from selling the scrolls and gems from the chests and spawn. Typically, one completed level 6 is good for 2000-3000 points, once you donate all the collected gold and proceeds from the scroll/gem sales. I also donate the regs to the mage & necro (though doing that has only got me to the 100-200k range).
IF you're training a tailor, tinker or carpenter, do your training in the library (after having someone get the speckled scorpion sacs to let your crafter-in-training do the quest). cloth & leather ninja hoods go to the thief, as do lockpicks (All of which are high-end skill train items). the Samurai takes bokutos, the musician takes instruments, the fisher takes fishing poles, the Animal Trainer takes crooks, and all of them have been, at one time or another, on various carpentry training guides. In fact, a few thousand of the points that went to the Anthropomorphist glasses my tamer wears as a point of pride, came from picking up someone's carpenter trainee leaving hundreds of crooks left in boxes in Luna.