Palladium Pickaxe

The Palladium Drill looks faster on the tooltip and usually is not, for two reasons. The pickaxe reaches further, so you clear more blocks without repositioning, and mining speed bonuses from potions and gear apply to it while the drill ignores them. The drill also chews through neighboring tiles you wanted to keep. Unless you specifically like how the drill feels, take this.

It tops out below adamantite and titanium, so it is a one tier tool: you use it to get through mythril and orichalcum, then replace it. Do not spend gold reforging it past a cheap Light roll. Compared to the Cobalt Pickaxe on the other ore path it is modestly better across the board, but not enough to justify hunting the alternate ore if your world gave you cobalt.