This article is about Diamond ore. For the block, see Diamond (Block). For the gem, see Diamond (Gem).
A naturally occurring diamond vein.
Diamond Ore is generally considered to be the most valuable and elusive block in the game. It can be mined for a diamond gem using an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe.
Uses
Diamonds can be used to make Shovels, Pickaxes, Axes, Swords, Hoes, and Armor of the highest quality. It is also a requisite ingredient in Jukeboxes, and solid diamond blocks.
Prospecting
Diamond Ore can be found in veins of 1-10 blocks (sometimes even more if multiple veins happen to spawn together, and down to 1 if the block that was supposed to be diamond ore is occupied by a cavern, dungeon, lake etc.). Diamond shows up at elevations ranging from 1 to 20 blocks above the bottom of the map.
- Diamond ore occurs in roughly 0.12% of rock below elevation 19.
- This calculates to approximately 4 diamond ore per chunk.
Trivia
- When diamond was first introduced, it was called emerald.[1]
- If diamond ore is obtained via inventory hacking, smelting it will give the diamond gem.
- Diamond, like other ores, is easier to find in caves and empty lava pools, as this gives more surface area.
- Like other ores, diamond was about 50% more common in the quadrant south-west of the point (0,0) compared to the north-east quadrant. However, this was fixed in Beta 1.6.
- In some vein formations, ores connect diagonally. Therefore it is recommended to mine around diamond ore. This also permits checking for lava.
- Diamond Ore, along with other ores, appears in the background on the achievement page.
- Diamonds are considered to be the rarest item in the game. However, in Beta 1.6, there was a bug that made Clay the rarest material in the game until the bug was fixed.
- Diamond ore cannot be found or placed in Classic as of version 0.30.
Bugs
- In SMP sometimes the owners of servers will place the Block and it will be shown as a Diamond (Ore) Block but when you try to mine it, It will come up as a cobblestone block in your inventory. This also happens with Gold (Ore), Iron (Ore), Coal, Redstone and Lapis Lazuli.