Iron Ore

Iron is a relatively rare mineral. It only appears in the bottom half of the map (rows 1-64). On average, iron ore gets more common the deeper one gets, that is until bedrock is reached. The number of iron ores at level 20 is 1.06 times that of the numbers of iron ores at layer 50. It is found in approximately 0.72% of stone from rows 2-61. In Survival Test, it only gave the player a Block of Iron 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. On average, there are 84 iron ores per chunk.

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 Test, breaking iron ore would cause 1 - 3 iron blocks to drop.

Eisen (Erz) Iron (Ore)/es Fer (minerai) Iron (Ore)/ko IJzer (erts) Żelazo (ruda) pt-br:Iron (Ore)/ptbr Железо (руда) 铁矿