Tutorials/Mining

In Minecraft, there are many ways a player can mine. This article explains several techniques that may be of use.

Cherrypicking
Also known as Spelunking, Cave Mining, or Caving.

Cherrypicking is the fastest and simplest of all the mining methods. Although cherrypicking has the highest resource ROI (Return On Investment) since little pickaxe durability is spent on stone mining, there are many drawbacks. It is arguably the most dangerous method since you can easily end up lost, and it exposes you to significantly more mobs and other dangers than more systematic approaches. A sword (and/or bow) and provisions are virtually a necessity. If possible, wear armor.

The first step in cherrypicking is to find a cave system. This can be done from the surface, or you may run into a cave when using another method. As every second in which the cave is dark, is a second that mobs can spawn, so lighting the cave quickly is always of benefit. However, proceeding too quickly can result in your becoming lost or falling (possibly into lava) and so it is important to also tread carefully. Simple rules like following the left wall can help in many cases, though remember that caves extend in all three dimensions and may have entrances at different heights.

One tactic which removes some risk of becoming lost but takes a bit more time is to always place torches (or combination placements of torches, like pairs or arrow-shapes, or cobblestone milestones) at every entrance you come to. Remember to take time to light up the ceilings of large, open caves, since there is a high chance of another exposed ore or another cave being found up there. In the case of ceiling ores, use the pillaring method. Another tactic is to mine the resources on the way back. This reduces the risk of being attacked by mobs while mining since the mining is done in places that have been already lit and otherwise made safer.

It is recommended to carry a bucket of water. Caves deeper underground often tend to contain- or lead to other caves containing- large pools of lava, which can easily be bypassed or removed by using water on stationary lava to create obsidian, which you can leave or mine (if you have a diamond pickaxe). Buckets of water also allow you to extinguish yourself, should you catch fire.

As every explorer runs into surface caves from time to time, cherrypicking is an important method for dealing with those caves quickly and easily.

Drifting
An extension of cherrypicking, drifting is the construction of vertical, diagonal or horizontal tunnels at the end of a cave when the cherrypicking for that cave system has been exhausted, simply in order to find a new cave to cherrypick. The same parameters from the cherrypicking method still apply here when the next cave system is found (for more information on intensive mining, see the sections below), but note that there is a much greater danger of getting lost, especially in complex cave systems. The use of directional markers is highly advised.

Note that drifting is effective in finding exposed dungeons.

Vertical Mining
Also known as Getting Down, Shaft Mining, and Shafting

Safety
The #1 safety rule when mining downwards is never mine the block you are standing on if you don't know what's below it &mdash; there can be lava or a cave into which you would fall. Falling into lava will not only lead to a speedy death, but will likely cause your entire inventory to burn up. Therefore, mining 1x1 shafts is considered dangerous. It is advised to carry a water bucket and/or some blocks of material somewhere in a quick-slot. A block can be used to quickly plug the leakage in cases of water or lava inflow from a side of a shaft, and water can be poured over flowing lava to turn it into cobblestone or obsidian, as well as to put out fire.

Never dig directly upwards, because you may unexpectedly trigger falling sand, gravel, or, if your really unlucky, lava or a hostile mob. Standing to one side while mining blocks from the ceiling helps you avoid falling blocks and gives you a chance to react to a sudden lava outpour. If you do want to mine directly upwards, make sure to place ladders on the inside of the shaft, rather than placing blocks below you. The ladders prevent gravel or sand from falling on you and stop potential lava flows from killing you and wiping out your entire inventory. They also provide a quicker escape if you happen upon some mobs (by hitting a cave or a dungeon).

Staircases
Staircase mining is a common mining technique for quickly reaching lower levels of the map while continuing to gather Stone. It essentially consists of mining downwards in such a way that the player can always climb back up to the mine entrance. This has the advantage of not recquiring ladders or other means of getting back to the surface.

Straight
The most basic strategy is to mine in a straight line at a 45° angle downwards, moving one block across for every block down. for added efficiency while climbing back up, dig out four blocks above each step instead of three. this way, you wont hit your head with each jump. To climb back up these stairs afterwards, you only need to hold down the jump key while moving forward.

After enough cobblestone (or wood) is collected, you can craft Stairs and place them at your downright tunnel. It will make the trip a lot smoother, easier and faster without any need to jump. Although an extra block from the ceiling of the staircase will need to be removed to accommodate the stairs.

Spiral
Spiral staircases are slightly more complicated since they have frequent turns, but have the advantage of leading straight down. They also have the benefit of being more contained and give you a more targeted dig. One design is a 3x3 horizontal grid. By digging one block down at a time, and moving around the perimeter of your 3x3 area, you will have enough head room as you move down the staircase. You can optionally leave the central column for a barrier or remove it to place ladders centrally, but it isn't necessary for the functionality of the staircase. You can also add stair blocks to this setup as well.

Spiral (2x2)

 * 1) Stand on the bottom-left block of your staircase. Dig one block down, so you have to hop to exit the stairs.
 * 2) Mine the block/s in front of you and the block beneath. Drop down.
 * 3) Turn 90 degrees. Periodically place torch above head when dark.
 * 4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 until desired result achieved.

Shaft mining
Shafts are mined vertical tunnels used to gain access to underground mining sites. They can be of any widths starting from 1x1 blocks. Shafts with widths of 2x2 and up are able to be turned into water elevators for fast vertical transportation.

1x2

 * 1) Pick a place where you want your shaft
 * 2) Mine a first block adjacent to the block you are standing at
 * 3) Step down
 * 4) Mine a block you were standing at and one below it
 * 5) Place a ladder every two blocks down
 * 6) Go to 2.1
 * 7) Continue in above pattern until you reach desired depth. From then on use a horizontal mining method of your choice

3-in explosions
3-in explosion mining is the preferred method of using TNT to mine. You find a solid stone wall, mine 3 blocks inward, and then you place 1 block of TNT on the 3rd hollowed out space. Once placed, with stone in hand, you hit it with the stone block and and back up a few steps and block off the front of the hole with the lit TNT with 1 block of stone. The explosion should create a perfect 4x3x3 hole. Repeat as desired.

Shaft with water drop
With a separate descent shaft, getting to the bottom can be extremely fast; you simply fall into a water pit. Ascent is accomplished with a ladder. This arrangement can be accomplished by first stockpiling about 64 ladders along with 2 water-filled buckets, and then excavating a 3-block wide shaft. One side of the shaft becomes the water pit, while ladders are placed in the other side. The middle is then filled in to prevent falling outside the water pit while descending.

For detailed building instructions, see Vertical Mine Shaft With Water Drop.

Safety
Horizontal mining is not as dangerous as vertical. But there are some similar suggestions. Carry a water bucket and some blocks of some disposable, NON FLAMMABLE material (ex: sand, gravel, cobble) somewhere in a quick-slot. A block can be used to quickly plug the leakage in cases of lava, and water can be poured over flowing lava to turn it into a cobblestone, as well as to put out fire.

Branch Mining
An effective technique if you want to find rare resources with minimal effort. It is basically mining down to any level, usually to bedrock, and then mining outwards to the sides, much like a tree with a trunk and branches.


 * 1) Use the staircase method to dig down to bedrock.
 * 2) Go up 2 blocks and fill any space below you mined out.
 * 3) Dig a 3x3 room.
 * 4) Dig a straight 2x1 tunnel in a straight line then dig out 20 blocks every 4th block.
 * 5) To further increase efficiency, you can end the 20-block tunnel by digging 4 blocks of an 1x1 tunnels as each of the mined block reveals more than a 2x1 tunnel.

This method is based on the relatively low probability of desirable blocks being created without any neighbors, so it will occasionally miss small/narrow ore deposits that fall entirely between the branches, but it covers ground faster, so you'll usually get more ore for your time. If you'd rather be sure of 100% coverage, see the Strip Mining section below. Diagram: X = Tunnel "Trunk" B = Branch S = Staircase B      B                 B       B           B       B                 B       B           B       B                 B       B           B       B                 B       B           B       B                 B       B           B       B                 B       B           B       B       XXX       B       B X X X X X X X X X X X X X XXX X X X X X X X X X X X X           B       B       XXX       B       B           B       B        S        B       B           B       B        S        B       B           B       B        S        B       B           B       B        S        B       B           B       B        S        B       B Each branch can be any length, but about 20 blocks long is a good length to begin with.

Strip Mining
Strip Mining is an efficient way to discover resources as it uncovers every block down a certain length of tunnel. It involves digging tunnels (usually 20 spaces long) either side of a two-block thick wall.


 * 1) Dig a room that is 7 blocks long, 10 blocks wide and 3 blocks high. Have your stairway/ladder in the middle of one of the 10 block walls, preferably 2 spaces wide.
 * 2) Starting in one of the corners, dig parallel to one of the walls of the room you just dug, for 20 spaces, placing a torch every 5 blocks.
 * 3) Then, dig another 20 block tunnel that has two blocks between it and the previous tunnel.
 * 4) Continue until you reach the other side of the room.

Diagram:

Key: A = Air B = Stone block S = Staircase T = Tunnel A A A A A A A A A A T T T T T                 A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B                  A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B                  A A A A A A A A A A T T T T T                  A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B                  A A A A A A A A A A B B B B B                  A A A A A A A A A A T T T T T                  T B B T S S T B B T                   T B B T S S T B B T                  T B B T S S T B B T                  T B B T S S T B B T                  T B B T S S T B B T

By utilising Strip Mining properly you can uncover all the blocks in quite a large area, and the mineral yields are quite high. Having the stairs 2 blocks wide allows for most efficient strip mining as they can be strip mined around. Also, a good length for each tunnel is 20 blocks long.

Advanced Strip Mining
Advanced strip mining is the only method which allows you to mine 100% of the ores on multiple levels while only mining 25% of the stone. The picture at the right is a side view of this simple tactic. Each black box is part of a branch of the mine, while the red represents what you can see from each branch. Lastly, each green line represents the location of a staircase downwards.

In most cases, the staircases would not be placed in the same z dimension, as that is inefficient when constructing through caves. Instead place the stairs slightly apart from one another.

To most efficiently use Advanced Strip mining, proceed down a branch until you have used up half of your picks, or your inventory is half full. Then, mine your way to another branch and head backwards.

Quarry Mining


Quarry Mining is very similar to strip mining, sharing the prospect of taking all resources within an area. The difference between Quarrying and Strip Mining is that the process of Quarrying involves a large rectangular or square strip, continually mined downwards with a staircase running along the side. This method got its name by its similarity to real world quarry sites. Quarries are typically ceased when a large cave is discovered (This does not directly stop the excavation, it just makes it difficult to continue), the miner abandons the Quarry for another project, or the "end of the world" is reached.



The Construction of a Quarry is as follows:

1: Determine the size of the project, there is no standard so simply choose how big you want it to be, however it is advised that the area is large, to maximize resources within a single quarry. (A typical quarry can be 20x20 or 20x30, for example)

2: Begin Mining until the entire area is one block deep, save for one block which will become the stairs

3: Continue mining one block deep while keeping an extra block to extend the stairway, until the mine reaches bedrock or until you wish to abandon the project.

Example:

Key: - = Air B = Stone block S = Staircase

Top of mine:

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB BSB B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Next few levels down:

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB B-B BSB B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB B-B B-B BSB B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B B-B BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

although the yielded amount of cobblestone, dirt/sand, coal, iron, and to some extent gold, will be enormous, and the possibility of lava is very high, this is not the best method for mining diamond and lapis lazuli, because they're found only at the bottom of the map (Note: Diamonds and Lapis Lazuli CAN be mined using this method, but due to their rarity the placement of the quarry along with its size will determine the amount). This type of mining is suggested for getting large amounts of cobblestone, iron and coal, besides the ability to gain large amounts of resources, this type of mining exposes many caves for further exploration/mining.



Besides mining, Quarries also have some non-resource related benefits, such as keeping the area clean and fresh (not ruining the nature), and a handy trap as the mine is very deep.

Water blocks placed two high at the bottom of a quarry can allow quick descent (by just jumping into the water), and water elevators can be used to quickly return to ground level from the bottom.

Warning: Be extremely careful around this mine, as a fall will surely be fatal.

Cosmetic Mines
This section is for mines that are not cramped midget tunnels and focus more on aesthetics rather then efficiency.

Clc's Vertical design
A mine of mine (No pun intended) I decided to talk about, seeing as how few aesthetic mine designs there are it should be a welcome change. Mind you don't expect to do all the connections, let alone open/maze connections (Varations section) unless you're on a server, or you have a will you can break diamond on.

Design
This design consists of a Hub and a Push leading into another Hub.

Hub: Top view:

BBBBBBB

BB___BB

B_____B

B_____B

B_____B

BB___BB

BBBBBBB

Side view:

BBBBBBB

BB___BB

BB___BB

B_____B

B_____B

B_____B

BBBBBBB

Where B a block and _ is air.

Each push is basically the design behind it (The side view) dropped a square repeated several times, the amount is dependent on the miner but an even number is prefered due to torch placement (Discussed later) The central hub (The first hub made in the mine) will have 4 pushes in each of the cardinal directions, eventually, if you are in need of ores you may choose to go down in one direction until you have what you need. I recommend you check your y coordinate about now, you may want a push length that will allow you to get your y value as close as you can to 12 (Lava spawns in caves at 10, and your y is up 2 for the positioning of your head) After you've decided on your length and finished a push you make another Hub in the same size as above. Continue until you reach the last of your hubs (You should end it before you hit bedrock, otherwise it won't be very nice looking)

Torch Placement
Torch placement is simple in this design. You will have 8 torches in each hub, on both sides of the bottom of the corners. If you want you may add a torch to the center floor to add more light, but it is enough to prevent mobs spawning as it is now.

For every push you put two torches on every other left and right hangs.

Connections
After you finished all of the cardinal pushes you'll be wondering what next to do, considering the amount you've mined you may want a place to store away items, connections are great for this.

Each connection is a hub formed by two of the cardinal branches intersecting, meaning if you went to the first north hub down, you'd have to mine one push/hub to the left and connect to it from the first west hub down by pushing right. It's the same as the hub but it leaves two walls with nothing to do, if you try to continue with them you will get intersections that are hard to make aesthetic unless your looking for a large open mine, or a maze mine. Instead, you can use it for chests, and it works well for it's purpose. Very hard to describe with letters, so here's a picture instead: ... Or as soon as I can upload a picture Picture

Continuations
After your cardinal directions are done, you have your as many connections as you care for, what's next? You continue Adding onto your bottom hubs, only with straight pushes. The bottom hubs will branch in all directions except backwards (Unless your going with a open/mine variation) and each of those hubs may spread in the same direction so long as it's not backwards for the original hub. If you positioned well in the first centeral hub and push size, you'll be scraping a long in a fairly wide tunnel along the same height you find diamonds. It's easy sailing from here on.

Varations
Central Drop shaft:

Central hub is under an area of flat ground, you put a three deep hole where torches will go, ladders go on the bottom and top, torches in the middle, you go above the hub as normal only there will be a 2 high gap under the hangs on this first hub to allow for the ladders as a way up. This also works particularly well if you want to replace the top with glass.

Open Mine Connections:

Same as original, only every connection you make splits off in all four directions. It goes up with a 1 wide path in the center in all four directions and the both of the two wide paths go down until they merge (Which is when it can do so without getting rid of the upward path

There are two variations, one where you will go up when you make a connection, so you will have a stack of hubs in all directions, another where you only dig down in the connections, where they intersect you build the 1 central path down to the hub. The latter is more efficient as all of it will eventually lead to the bottom and therefore be mining ore.

Maze Mine Connections:

The same as an Open Mine except your down path is one wide, not your up path. Same two variations, same correlation in efficiency.

Lava lights:

You can replace the torches in the center (If you placed them at all) of the hubs with a piece of glass and lava under it and it gives only one light less. You can change it for a 3x3 if you feel so inclined and have enough lava.

Drop Shafts:

This combines the Central Drop Shaft and optionally the Open and Maze Mine Connections. It requires close tallies if you don't want to combine them though.

At your Hub you mine down the same as if you were going to make a Centeral drop Shaft, but continue until you are on the same level as your next hub (Depends on the size of your push, like a 8 push would be 8 blocks down) After you reach the bottom you make another hub in the same style as a Centeral Drop Shaft. This will require more ladders, so it's not a very good idea if your short on wood, but it allows a certain maze quality that I find welcome.

There are two places where you can put the ladders, but the two per corner type of the Central Drop Shaft style is preferred, however the other style uses less ladders. You mine your shafts in the blocks directly north/south/east/west of the center so that you have 4 shafts all the way to the next hub, this require 5 blocks to hang down from the hub, some like it, others don't.

Two variations on top of that, you may use the drop shaft for all your hubs, thus any hub with a hub above will be able to ascend, or you can only use the shafts for the centeral hub, adding 'terraces' to your mine.

Where does open/maze mine connections come in? After you get down to the bottom level you may continue to stretch out and connect with the original push/hubs. Once you connect you may use the open style, leaving 1 wide path up or the maze, leaving 2x2 wide up.

Space/Portion Mining
Not to be confused with Strip Mining, however, this does involve a similar methed.

Room Miming
This form of mining involves someone to make a hall way and then make a small opening in the wall. From there, one must simply dig out a portion of the block to create a space. This method is repeated many times down the hall on either side to create rooms for various purposes, while finding several ores and valued materials in the procces. This method is useful for the creation of houses, barns, indoor-gardens, storages, and in the creation of hard-to-find/secret places.

Tunnel Mining
This is highly similar to Room Mining, except that instead of Building rooms, you build tunnels. However, this takes much longer to do and tunnels are usually much larger than rooms. Because of this, Tunnel Mining is lesser to be used as the tunnels take up many tools in the proccess of making them. Despite the fact that they may yeild many resources, players may use up several pick axes or shovels in the proccess of making them as well as torches to light up the tunnel. Players may get bored of doing this and may abandon the tunnels while still in the proccess of making them. Some may not consider begining construction on future tunnels due to lost supplies and the tunnel not being rewarding enought to continue. This method is useful for making minecart subways, large indoor-gardens, art galleries, tree farms, boats rivers, large barn(s), mazes, doing constuction on vertical and horizontal structures, constucting strip mines, and secret/hard-to-find areas by making tunnels that seem to go nowhere.

Poradniki/Techniki wydobywania surowców