Metal

A metal is a lustrous, conductive, and generally strong and workable material. There currently exist two different metals within Minecraft:

Properties of metals
Metals in Minecraft all share the following properties:


 * They can exist in nugget, ingot and full block forms.
 * They have corresponding tool and armor sets.
 * Their tool and armor sets can be processed by a furnace or blast furnace in order to receive a nugget of the respective metal back.
 * Their ores are the only ores which drop themselves as a block without the use of the Silk Touch enchantment, requiring these ores to be smelted via furnace or blast furnace to receive the ingot.
 * They are capable of making pressure plates of varying weightedness.
 * They, in block form, can power beacons.

Iron has the following additional properties:
 * Can be used to create iron doors and iron trapdoors
 * Can be used to create iron bars
 * Has another corresponding armor set, the chain armor
 * Used for many heavy utility blocks such as the anvil, cauldron and hopper

Gold has the following additional properties:
 * Can be used to upgrade apples, carrots and melon slices into golden apples, golden carrots and glistering melon slices.

Metallic elements
Aside from gold and iron, there exist numerous elements which also correspond to real-life metals. However, these do not have the same uses that gold and iron metals have in-game.

Metal as a material type
Certain blocks are classified as metals as opposed to rock, requiring a pickaxe to be mined. However, the blocks placed in this category are not necessarily made of a metal in themselves; for example, blocks of diamond, blocks of emerald, blocks of redstone and lapis lazuli blocks are all listed under this category despite not being made of a metal.