Emerald Ore

Emerald ore is the rarest mineral block in the game, which drops emerald when mined.

Obtaining
The emerald ore block itself (rather than its emerald drops) can be obtained by mining it with an iron or diamond pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment.

Natural generation
Emerald ore can generate in the Overworld in the form of mineral veins. Emerald ore attempts to generate 11 times per chunk in veins of size 1, from altitudes 0 to 32, within one of the following biomes, or within a chunk which is at least partially occupied by one of these biomes:



Usage
Emerald ore drops 1 emerald and 3-7 experience when mined with an iron pickaxe or better. Mining with a Fortune enchanted pickaxe will increase possible yields by 1 per level (1-4 emeralds per ore with level III). If mined with any other tool, it drops 5-7 experience.

Smelting ingredient
This recipe awards 1 experience.

Trivia

 * Even though emerald ore is rarer than diamond ore, emerald ore is generally found more often in mountains biomes than diamond ore, as the emerald ore blocks are generated in a more scattered fashion.
 * It is possible to have two or more emerald ore blocks generate adjacent to each other, though this is very rare.
 * As emeralds are far easier to obtain by trading with villagers, the player may wish to use the silk touch enchantment to collect the far harder to get ore.