Lapis Lazuli Ore



Lapis lazuli is an ore block that is used to make blue dyes and decorative blocks. Like coal, redstone, emerald ore and diamond ore, the block yields the resource immediately after mining, requiring no crafting or smelting. It drops 4-8 lapis lazuli shards, which can be used to create blue wool as a dye color, crafted into a Lapis Lazuli Block, or mixed with other dyes.

Lapis lazuli is based on the real stone for which it is named and has historically been a prized and rare stone used in jewelry and as a dye.

Lapis lazuli can be mined with a stone or better pickaxe. It is usually found at a depth of 31 and below. The highest concentration of lapis lazuli ore is found between levels 13 and 16. At this level the concentration is about 0.083% of all blocks (0.1013% of stone). The concentration drops linearly as one gets farther from these rows. Overall, lapis lazuli is around 1.1 times as common as diamond ore with an average of 3.43 lapis lazuli per chunk.

If a pickaxe with a Fortune enchantment is used, as much as 32 lapis lazuli shards can be dropped from one ore.

Smelting
Note: Lapis lazuli ore blocks can only be mined with a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch. Also, smelting the ore instead of mining it is highly inefficient, as mining it with a regular pickaxe will yield more lapis lazuli and more experience.

Trivia

 * Lapis lazuli is the only ore that spawns exclusively below level thirty that can be mined with a stone pickaxe.
 * It was supposed to be used in the crafting recipe for the unimplemented Crying Obsidian.