Iron Ore

Iron ore is a mineral block found underground. It is smelted into iron ingots, which are used to make tools and armor.

Breaking
Iron ore must be mined with a stone pickaxe or higher, or else it drops nothing. Unlike most ores, iron ore always drops itself, regardless of whether the player used Silk Touch.

Natural generation
Iron ore can generate in the Overworld in the form of mineral veins. Iron ore attempts to generate 20 times per chunk in veins of size 1-14, from levels 0 to 63, in all biomes. As of Java Edition 1.16.4, on average they generate 112 ores per chunk.

Usage
The primary usage of iron ore is to obtain iron ingots.

Note Blocks
Iron ore can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass drum" sound.

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Trivia

 * About 0.6 percent of a Minecraft world consists of iron ore.
 * According to lead artist Jasper Boerstra, the texture used in Java Edition snapshot 21w07a "resembles beetroot ore".