Talk:Diamond Ore/Archive 1

Diamond above ground?
I've been mining for diamond, digging a staircase down until I found some and then digging a horizontal tunnel from there. It seems diamond ore is only present in a thin layer, deep underground. The first tunnel gave me lots of diamond, but I dug a second tunnel a few (~5) blocks lower and I haven't found any diamond there as of yet. Anyone else that had a similar (or different?) experience? -Rick –Preceding unsigned comment was added by (&#124;) 10:04, 3 November 2010. Please sign your posts with


 * I think it's 5-10 blocks above the Void. -- 22:06, 3 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Using MCEdit, I flew through the ground for a while and found diamond veins as high as 14 blocks above the bedrock and as much as 6 blocks in a vein. -- 15:03, 14 November 2010 (CST)


 * On a freshly generated world with NO MODS, I found 3 blocks of Diamond about 15 blocks above sea level, and then another vein much farther away, consisting of 7 blocks of Diamond about 10 blocks above sea level. I took the save into Survival Multiplayer, to show my friends. I am not lying, there are NO MODS. http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/3161/20110102014039.png -- 02:40, 2 January 2010 (CST


 * If you arent lying put the seed and coordinates below for everyone to see. -- 18:35, 1 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Your word means nothing. Pictures CAN lie. Your specified parameters are far out of the range of anything possible in the game's code. You may be able to fool the 10-year-olds that run Minepedia, the Poser Minecraft Wiki, but you're not fooling anyone here. Also, if it was true, you would have given a better picture than that one, but of course, you didn't, because you secretly fail at retexturing. Go troll MiNePeDiA olololololol, because nobody here cares. (P.S. Also, your claim has no bearing to the article's talk page, so you're just wasting page space.) -- 17:15, 30 April 2011 (UTC)


 * You are using a texture pack. That means the texture pack CAN make (for example) stone looking like Diamond ore. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  09:03, 7 December 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * Well, this story is not believable in the slightest, but by a complete map generation glitch, I have found diamond ore on layer(I think? it was a long time ago.... beta 1.3) 34 in VERY SMALL veins, and I've also found massive veins of it (10 - 12 pieces, on layers 7-11).-- 17:48, 26 March 2012 (PST)

Smelting Ores
So I noticed the [citation needed] tag on the second trivia note saying that diamond ore can be smelted to obtain diamonds. I just entered my world and invedited some stuff in, and I can confirm that Diamond ore is smeltable.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7044/20110323074515.png

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8777/20110323074525.png 14:57, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Put it on now! What are you waiting for? -- 11:44, 1 October 2011 (UTC) p.s. Is that a Xephos skin?


 * shouldn't you upload a screenshot without a texture pack? --Wally –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  11:45, 1 October 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * EVEN IF IT LOOKED NORMAL COULDN'T HE STILL HAVE A TEXTURE PACK THAT JUST MAKES IRON LOOK LIKE DIAMOND OR SOMETHING? -JACOB –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  19:05, 2 January 2012. Please sign your posts with


 * NO BECAUSE TRY IT IN SINGLEPLAYER USING CREATIVE MODE AND GUESS WHAT I CAN BE LOUD TOO 19:09, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Lava and Diamond
The other day, someone respectable said that diamond only appears within 20 blocks or a lava spring. He said he checked this, and also removed the lava from the seeds or something and then didn't find any diamond. Can anyone confirm this? -- 03:28, 14 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure about that, but I saw somewhere that there is only 1 diamond vein per chunk. –The preceding undated comment was added on 06:25, 14 November 2010. Please sign your posts with


 * On average the game attempts to make one diamond vein per chunk. But random being random... -- 13:44, 14 November 2010 (CST)


 * I've got a strip mine to bedrock, about the size of a single chunk, and it it I've found at least 6 veins of diamonds, totaling 17 blocks. Definitely just an average. 10:18, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Diamond near Redstone
"'Diamond ore is commonly found behind, beside, or around redstone veins.'" This is just a personal experience, not a fact. Today I removed on a map everything worthless to compare the distribution of veins (with WorldEdit). There seems to be no relation between any vein to a vein of another kind.

-- 02:16, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I think this misconception is based on how plentiful redstone is. Odds are when you find diamond redstone isn't too far away, of course odds are if you don't find diamond...redstone still isn't too far away.  02:16, 12 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It depends on how deep you are. It's true that lava is plentiful at the bottom of the map, as is red stone. is correct in saying that where ever the is diamond there will most likely be redstone. There will also be stone, coal, iron, and mobs.  23:41, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Iron pickaxe
I now experienced twice that, when mining diamond ore with an iron pickaxe that is about to break, you get no diamond gem. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by (&#124;) 10:05, 1 May 2011. Please sign your posts with
 * This is true of all pickaxes on all ores in SMP, and is already on the page. Or did this happen to you on SSP? -~ 21:39, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I didn't see this anywhere on the page, and I think this should be on the  page as well.  19:51, 2 May 2011 (UTC)JorisP
 * I probably should've stated that it's true for all tools and not just pickaxes, and is thus listed under . That's probably why it's not on the pickaxe page. -~ 21:16, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I thought this was fixed in 1.2? ( 22:25, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

Percentage occurrence?
The article says diamond ore occurs in 0.09% of rock, but in the trivia section it mentions Diamond occurs more in the South-West quadrant (as with other ores). Is that 0.09% value the intended distribution in the code (in which case the actual distribution is higher), or the actual distribution taking into account the different distributions for different map quadrants (meaning once this bug is patched, it will be less than 0.09%)? 21:44, 24 May 2011 (UTC)


 * The correct ore distribution is in the South-West quadrant. "There's less ore..." C ali nou - ×  » 21:51, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

No pickaxe damage listed
There's no pickaxe damage listed in red next to the pickaxe picture unlike on other pages. 12:02, 21 July 2011 (UTC)


 * What are you talking about? – ( at 12:09, 21 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Because it is a normal use of the tool : 1 mined block = 1 damage to the tool. Red numbers are for double damage (it only happens with swords I think). –  12:25, 21 July 2011 (UTC)

1.8, change in elevation requirements?
If version 1.8 has a higher elevation limit, does that mean that diamond is still at the bottom 16 and thus even lower? Or did sea level stay constant in the update? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  20:37, 17 September 2011. Please sign your posts with

Diamond Ore Deeper?
I was playing Minecraft RC2, however, I used my best diamond mining technique in 4 directions, and a super diamond mining technique, but I didn't get any diamonds. Have diamonds gone deeper? –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  04:11, 14 November 2011. Please sign your posts with


 * From my experience playing RC2, it really seems to have moved further down! I used to dig down to F3 saying y=16.6, in b1.6 and earlier, and went around in spirals in all 4 directions finding diamonds pretty decently - Now I've been doing that for like 2 hours and haven't found ANY. Eventually going down a few layers to y=11.6 actually yielded me around 10+ diamonds in a few MINUTES... Can't be coincidence... -- 10:21, 18 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes it can. ```` –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  21:50, 22 December 2011. Please sign your posts with
 * You forgot to sneak (hold shift) to sign. Come to my page! 00:58, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Diamond Vein Size?
The article says that Diamond Ore occurs from 2-8 blocks. I have encountered a single diamond block, mined outward in every direction from the diamond for 3 blocks, and found nothing. I wish I had taken a picture, but I looked up this page later, after I had mined it. Can anyone else relate?

The diamond was directly adjacent to gravel, so maybe gravel is made after ores are rendered in map making, so gravel can cut through/replace ore veins? –The preceding undated comment was added on 22:02, 22 December 2011. Please sign your posts with
 * Gravel comes before ores, but ores only replace stone. Come to my page! 00:58, 15 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I have encountered 1 single diamond ore. I didn't mine outwards from it however. Maybe your theory is true? I managed to mine diamond ore with a normal pickaxe,yet apparently you need silk touch. Got any knowledge?

20:21, 2 February 2012 (UTC)excat


 * I got a vein of 10 diamond once. (I lost track of the file, unfortunately). I also found a lone diamond ore, though it might have been part of a vein with the rest destroyed by the cave-creation system.  02:24, 20 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I've also gotten a vein of 10 ores.
 * -316,6,233 (x,y,z)
 * Seed: 654593369
 * Version 1.2.3
 * -- 17:04, 17 March 2012 (UTC)


 * That is probably 2 veins connected. (But that wasn't the edge of a chunk, so how is that possible?) Come to my page! 00:58, 15 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I believe you have come across only one-block veins before because caverns overwrite veins. The diamond ore you found was probably bigger by a few blocks, which were carved out when the caverns of your world were loaded. 04:06, 18 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I have also found 1 lone diamond in bedrock at level 4; it had bedrock all around the sides but there was no gravel around it. I mined 5 blocks out in all other directions and found no other diamonds. Still I do not understand why that happened. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by  at 19:39, 16 September 2012 (UTC). Please sign your posts with

"Requires" Silk Touch?
The first paragraph in this page implies that diamond ore is found (rarely) in the world, and "can be mined for a diamond gem using an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe".

Other places in the page say that Diamond Ore can be obtained only by use of the Silk Touch enchantment. As a Minecraft newbie, this looks like a contradiction: only one implies not the other.

I suspect that this is due to the language people are using: it makes perfect sense to experienced players, but not to us newbies. For example, maybe one of those statements is talking about blocks for mining, and the other is talking about blocks for building?

Could an expert clarify this and edit the page for the benefit of future newbies? The "only Silk Touch" statement appears in the and  sections.

Thanks. -- 16:51, 1 March 2012 (UTC) (quirkster)


 * Fair enough point. Silk Touch provides the (less useful) ore, rather than the actual diamond.  Fixed it for you; check those articles.  -- 16:57, 1 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Those sections make sense to this newbie now. -- 20:16, 1 March 2012 (UTC) (quirkster)

1 diamond vein per chunk?
Is there only 1 diamond vein per chunk? If not, seed and coordinates or source code. Come to my page! 00:58, 15 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I also found that strange. That would make Diamond very rare. Also in the wiki it says "There is an average of 3.097 diamond ore per chunk". And earlier "found in small veins of 1-9 together". If there were only 1 vein per chunk and maximum 9 ores per vein there can't be 3097 ore per chunk. I'm pretty sure that's wrong. 07:31, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * This is correct. The world generator makes one attempt per chunk to produce a cluster (vein) of diamond ore blocks. Since generation is not always successful, an average of about 3 ore blocks is not unreasonable. -- 16:43, 20 April 2012 (UTC)
 * ZkilfinG, 3.097 does not equal 3097, it equals 3+97/1000, which is a perfectly reasonable average if there is one 1-9 vein per chunk since larger veins are rare. -- 17:19, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Oh, my bad. That makes sense then. I didn't know the chunk size, I had assumed it was much larger. 11:02, 21 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I have found two diamond ore veins in a single chunk. This was on a pre-1.7 world, so you'll have to change your version to 1.6.4 under "profile" to get it to load. If you spawn underwater, it's not the right version. Seed: 3396408 Chunk: (-59,0) Ore coordinates: (-939,10,6), (-933,6,14). The 2x1 vein is on the very edge of the chunk, could this have something to do with it? Could diamond ore somehow "spill" into an adjacent chunk? I haven't yet searched that adjacent chunk for diamonds ... 05:02, 13 January 2014 (UTC)


 * After more research, it appears that the "1 diamond vein per chunk" theory isn't exactly right, as confirmed by other sources using mcedit, etc. Check out this link: http://voxelwiki.com/minecraft/Elites_of_Minecraft:_The_Miner . According to this, "The x and z locations are evenly distributed in that chunk, and then 8 is added to both - i.e. the boundary is offset. ... The offsets place diamond very effectively at random, so you cannot 'avoid' mining an area because you found diamond near it already." Any comments on this? Because the offsets could move diamond veins into other chunks, that makes chunk mining for diamonds much less effective, if not useless, am I wrong on this? 05:42, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Layer 12
If you go to the page, you can see that Diamond ores are most common between layer 5 and 12 (with 12 being the most common). So, when mining, you should have layer 12 in the roof and 9 in the floor, mining a straight 2x1. But, in order to have layer 9 in the floor, you should have Y=10 on the coordinates (in the F3 debug screen). This is because Y=10 refers to the top of layer 9. At least this the strategy I use. 22:26, 1 April 2014 (UTC)