An Ore is a type of block naturally found in Minecraft. Ores are primarily collected for crafting purposes, to make items such as tools, armor, and more. Redstone from its ore is used as a type of wiring which can be used to create redstone circuits, compasses, clocks, and other items. Coal from its ore can be used to smelt other ores, such as gold and iron for storage purposes or building. Since layer 0 is the lowest and consists of only bedrock, no ore can be found there. It can, however, be spawned very close to the bottom of the chunk at layer 1.
An ore block looks like a usual stone block with different colored shards or gems embedded into it.
To get a drop from an ore, a player must have the right type of pickaxe or better. If they do not, the mining will take longer and a player won't get the ore drop.
Overworld Ores
Overworld ore is ore embedded within stone. The majority of ores in-game have real-life equivalents.
Coal Ore is a very common ore that can be found underground or in rock formations such as mountains (at y<132), in relatively large deposits, 17 at the most. This ore is most commonly found in caves, or caverns. Coal is mined from coal ore and can be used as furnace fuel, or crafted with a stick to create torches. Coal ore can be successfully mined using any type of pickaxe.
Iron Ore is most commonly found underground (at y<68) in small veins up to 9 but can be found in rock formations such as mountains. It can be smelted into iron ingots, which can be used to craft many useful items, including armor, weapons, tools, and minecarts, as well as their rails. Iron Ore can be mined using a stone, diamond, or netherite pickaxe.
Redstone Ore is a type of ore found at y<16, in veins up to 8. Added in the third Seecret Friday update, Redstone ore is more common than coal if at the correct layer. Redstone ore must be mined with an iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxe. When destroyed, several piles of redstone will appear, a property unique to redstone and lapis lazuli.
Redstone dust is currently used in the construction of various traps, mechanisms, and contraptions dependent on simple circuits. After 1.9 pre-release 3, Redstone dust can also be used for brewing.
If there is a block or entity update adjacent to a Redstone ore block, it will transform into a technical block called glowing redstone ore, which emits a light level of 9 and some particle effects, similar to that of a Nether Portal, only red, and will emit a redstone signal.
Gold Ore can be found at y<32, and y<80 in small veins in the Badlands biome. Veins can be up to 9 blocks each. Gold ore can be smelted to make gold ingots, which can make a variety of tools and weapons. Gold is a very soft material, similar to in real life, and is generally considered a bad choice for crafting due to its low durability. A gold tool only has the strength of a wooden tool. It wears out much quicker, despite mining at a rapid speed. Gold is, however, good for crafting golden apples and golden carrots .
Gold is mainly used in decorations and the crafting of powered rails and clocks. It can also be used for bartering with Piglins in exchange for other various objects and blocks. Nine gold ingots can be placed in a crafting square to make a block of gold, and the gold block can turn back into nine ingots, making for a practical "storage unit". Otherwise, gold ore is somewhat overshadowed by other ores. It can only be successfully mined with an iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxe. A gold pickaxe can't mine its ore.
Lapis Lazuli Ore (sometimes called Lapis or Lazuli) is a rare ore block that can be found at y<34, in veins of up to 7 blocks each. It is common in abandoned mineshaft. When harvested, it turns into four or five lapis lazuli dyes, which can be used to create blue dye as of the 1.14 - Village and Pillage update. It is also used for enchanting tools, weapons, and armor. It can also be used to craft the decorative lapis lazuli block. For a drop, a player must mine the ore with a stone or better pickaxe.
Diamond Ore is an extremely rare, but useful ore. It is commonly found in savannas, desert and taiga biomes and is only found very deep underground, alongside with redstone. (at y<16) and in sparse veins of up to 8 blocks each. To obtain a diamond, this ore must be mined by using an iron, diamond, or netherite pickaxe.
Diamonds can be used to create diamond tools, which have the second most durable and efficient pickaxe (second to netherite), and most possible uses in the game. A diamond pickaxe and Netherite pickaxe are the only pickaxes that can mine obsidian without the block breaking and dropping nothing.
Emerald Ore is the rarest ore to date in Minecraft, 30 times more so than diamond ore. It almost always spawns in only one-block veins, at y<33. When mined with an iron pickaxe, it drops an emerald; the only implemented uses of emeralds to date is for trading with villagers or crafting blocks of emerald which can be used in making a beacon pyramid. Emeralds are not rare, for they can be obtained by trading with villagers, but the ore is extremely rare.
Ruby Ore was added during the 1.3 snapshots, but was shortly replaced by emerald ore. It was scrapped because Dinnerbone, a developer of Minecraft, is colorblind, and he couldn't find the difference between ruby and redstone. This ore is currently non-existent. However, some mods that re-implement the ruby use this old texture.
Nether Quartz is an ore found in the Nether (at y<126), in veins of up to 14 blocks each, appearing in the 13w01a snapshot for the 1.5 update. It is very common and can be found just about anywhere in the Nether. Nether quartz is used in making the redstone comparator and blocks of quartz (and its variations).
Ancient Debris is an ore added in 1.16, appearing in snapshot 20w06a. It's an extremely rare ore found under lava lakes. Smelting this ore will give you netherite scrap.
Nether Gold Ore
Nether Gold Ore is a variant of Gold Ore that was added in the 1.16 update, and is found only in the Nether, and will drop 2 to 6 Gold Nuggets when mined.
Gilded Blackstone
Gilded Blackstone is an ore found only in Bastion Remnants. It has a 10% chance of dropping 2-5 Gold Nuggets for each ore mined.
Ore Vein
An Ore Vein is a naturally generated structure found underground that is almost always encased in stone blocks. Ore veins look like block structures with bulbous bits randomly coming out along it. Sometimes they can be just cube-shaped, but some of them look extremely odd.
Trivia
Smelting ores without a pickaxe with Silk Touch will always yield ingots or only 1 output of that ore.
Gold is the only pickaxe type that can't mine its ore.
Ores used to be mined with the player's hand.
Gallery
Click for full Ore gallery.
External links
Ores of Minecraft Wiki - A wiki about Minecraft's ores (mostly talking about modded ones).
