Iron Ore

Iron is a relatively common mineral. It shows up at elevations ranging from 0 (the bottom of the map) to 67 (4 blocks above sea level). It is found in approximately 0.55% of rock below sea level, and falls off sharply in frequency higher up. In Survival Test, it only gave the player an iron block if mined. Most players prefer using iron tools over other types of tools due to Iron's comparative commonness, good durability, and ability to mine almost all of the game's blocks. It was introduced in Creative 0.28.

In Indev, Alpha and Beta, iron ore can be smelted in a furnace to make an iron ingot; iron ingots are used to make all the medium quality tools, armor, buckets, Flint and Steel and shears.

In Beta, iron ore requires a stone, iron, or diamond pickaxe to successfully extract.

Iron ore is often used in player traps as it can be mined and replaced in its raw form.

A list of craftable items can be found here.



Trivia

 * Iron ore veins can move diagonally and are sometimes unconnected.
 * lron in Classic spawns in huge veins, sometimes big enough to protrude into 3 caverns.
 * In an early version of the game, before furnaces were added, Fire was used to burn iron ore to get Iron Ingots.
 * In Survival mode, breaking iron ore would cause 1 - 3 iron blocks to drop.
 * In 1.8 Pre Release Iron Ore seems to be really common when exploring near-surface caves

Eisen (Erz) Fer (minerai) IJzer (erts) Żelazo (ruda) Железо (руда)