Coal Ore

Coal Ore is a mineral block that is a common sight on almost all maps. It is found at almost any elevation, from cliff faces, through underground caves and sea bottoms, down to bedrock. It is the only ore to appear well above sea level; coal ore comprises about 1% of all stone, regardless of altitude. Coal veins can vary greatly in size - mountaintop deposits are usually five blocks at most, but underground ones are generally at least ten blocks, and can range up to fifty or more.

A piece of coal can be mined directly from Coal ore using a wooden pickaxe or better. Coal can be combined with sticks to make torches, or used as fuel in a furnace or Minecart. When burned in a furnace, it smelts 8 items for each coal lump.

Smelting
Note that the Coal Ore block can only be obtained with a Pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch. Also, smelting the ore instead of mining it is highly inefficient, since it would require fuel to acquire the Coal Lump

History
Coal ore was introduced in Classic before 0.0.14a.

In an early version of the game (Indev 0.31 January 29, 2010), when destroyed without any items, coal ore drops a single coal, and three when mined with a pickaxe.

In Survival Test, it gave the player 1 to 4 stone slabs. As of Classic 0.28, it could be placed by players in Creative mode.

Trivia

 * Coal ore can be obtained via silk touch and when smelted it gives coal.
 * Coal can come in veins of over 30 or even over 40-50 blocks.
 * There are rare chances when you can yield more than 64 coal in one vein.
 * The Fortune enchantment applies to coal ore blocks, i.e. mining coal with it may yield more than one lump per block.
 * Since Minecraft 1.3, mining coal ore, along with other mineral ores, gives you experience orbs, allowing for a different way to get enchantments.

Gallery
Kohle (Erz) Coal (Ore)/es Charbon (minerai) Szénérc Coal Ore 석탄 (원석) Steenkool (erts) Węgiel (ruda) pt-br:Coal (Ore) Уголь (руда) 煤矿石