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This article is about the block. For the terrain feature, see Mineral vein. For the blackstone block mistakenly called an ore, see Gilded Blackstone. For the mineral commonly mistaken as an ore, see Amethyst Shard.
This article is missing information about all the Deepslate Ores and the tweaked ore generation. 
Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.
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Ore Layout

All of the ores as of 1.16.4.

Extracted Ores

Ores isolated down to bedrock

PercentOfOreByHeight

This graph shows the actual amount of ores found in a relatively small but untapped world as of Java Edition 1.12.2

Ancient Debris Spawn Rate Per Layer

This graph shows the actual amount of ancient debris found in a relatively small but untapped world as of Java Edition 20w06a

1

Ore distribution in 1.17‌[upcoming] as of 21w07a.

An ore is any uncommon rock-type block used to obtain specific resources.

Usage

Ore blocks are primarily collected for crafting purposes, such as for tools and armor. Redstone is obtained from redstone ore, which can be used to create redstone circuits. Ore can also be combined to create a block of the material's type.

There are two ways to obtain a resource from an ore block, depending on the type of ore:

  • Mining: The indicated yield can be increased by mining the ore with a pickaxe enchanted with Fortune. Ores that drop their resource when mined require a Silk Touch pickaxe to drop themselves.
    • Coal, diamond, emerald, and nether quartz ores drop 1 unit of corresponding raw material.
    • Redstone ore drops 4–5 redstone dust.
    • Lapis lazuli ore drops 4–9 lapis lazuli.
  • Smelting: Iron ore, copper ore,‌[upcoming: JE 1.17], gold ore, and ancient debris all drop themselves when mined. They must be smelted to obtain the corresponding resource (iron, copper, gold, and netherite scraps, respectively).

As a smelting ingredient

Ingredients Smelting recipe
Any raw ore + Any fuel


0.10.70.70.210.7110.212

Ores can be smelted faster using a blast furnace.

It is not efficient to mine with Silk Touch and then smelt an ore block that normally drops multiple pieces of its resource, because smelting these ores yields less experience and only 1 piece of the resource.

Further uses

All mineral blocks except quartz and copper‌[upcoming: JE 1.17] are crafted by putting 9 of the raw material items in a square. Quartz blocks are irreversibly crafted with 4 nether quartz and thus can be crafted in the inventory. Copper blocks‌[upcoming: JE 1.17] are also crafted from 4 copper ingots, which is reversible only if the copper block has not started oxidizing.

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Any processed ore

All raw materials except quartz can be crafted from their mineral blocks.

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Most mineral blocks

Iron and Gold ingots can be converted into nuggets and vice-versa.

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Metal Ingots
Ingredients Crafting recipe
Metal Nuggets

Lapis Lazuli can be crafted into a dye, or even used as one in Bedrock Edition.

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Lapis Lazuli

Netherite scraps, obtained by smelting ancient debris, are used alongside gold ingots to create netherite ingots. This is the only mineral used alongside another mineral to create an alloy. Netherite tools and armor also require you to first have diamond tools and armor.

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Gold Ingot, Netherite Scrap

Netherite ingots can be used on a smithing table to upgrade diamond items to netherite items. Data such as durability, enchantments, and custom names are preserved.

Diamond items +
Netherite Ingot

Upgrade Gear

Availability

This section is outdated 
It uses pre-21w07a distribution values (don't remove pre-21w07a values).

The following is the distribution of ores according to the altitude (layers are number of blocks above the lowest layer of bedrock) in the Overworld and the Nether. The highest layers that gold, redstone, diamond, and lapis lazuli ore can be found on are two layers lower.[1]

Overworld

Coal[a] Iron Copper[upcoming: JE 1.17][upcoming: BE 1.16.210] Lapis Lazuli Gold Redstone[b] Diamond Emerald[c]
Ore block Coal Ore Iron Ore Copper Ore Lapis Lazuli Ore Gold Ore Redstone Ore Diamond Ore Emerald Ore
Refined resource Coal Iron Ingot Copper Ingot Lapis Lazuli Gold Ingot Redstone Dust Diamond Emerald
Manufactured Iron Nugget Blue Dye Gold Nugget
Mineral block Block of Coal Block of Iron Copper Block Lapis Lazuli Block Block of Gold Block of Redstone Block of Diamond Block of Emerald
Minimal pickaxe for drop Wooden Stone Iron
Found in biome... Any Badlands Any Mountains
Abundance Very Common Common
Very Common‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).]
Common Rare Uncommon Common Uncommon Rare Very Rare
Total range... 0 – 255 (−16) – 80;

128 – 255

0 – 96 (−63) – 64 (−63) – 32 (−63) – 80 (−63) – 16 32 – 255
Most found in layers... 84 – 108;

136 – 255

28 – 36;

232 – 255

44 – 52 (−4) – 4 (−20) – (−12) (−60) – (−50) 216 – 255
Commonly up to layers... 156 64 80 32 13 76 −16 255
Rare on layers... 0 – 36 65 – 80;

128 – 168

81 – 96 33 – 64 14 – 32 77 – 79 (−15) – 15 32 – 108
None at or above... 256 81; 256 97 65 33 81 17 256
Can Replace

Stone
Andesite
Diorite
Granite

Stone

The Nether

Nether Quartz[d] Nether Gold Ancient Debris
Ore block Nether Quartz Ore Nether Gold Ore Ancient Debris
Refined resource Nether Quartz Gold Nugget Gold Ingot
(with Silk Touch)
Netherite Scrap
Manufactured Gold Ingot Netherite Ingot
Mineral block Block of Quartz Block of Gold Block of Netherite
Minimal pickaxe for drop Wooden Diamond
Abundance Very Common Common Very Rare
Found in biome... Any Nether
Most found in layers... 10 – 114 15 13 – 17[e]
Commonly up to layers... 120 95 23
Rare on layers... 123 – 125 96 – 116 22 – 119
None at or above... 128 117 120
Can Replace Netherrack

Netherrack
Basalt
Blackstone

  1. This refers to coal ore blocks spawned in ore veins and not as parts of fossils or mansion forges.
  2. Redstone has the same layer and line-size statistics as Diamond, but is generated eight times per chunk as opposed to once.
  3. Instead of multi-block veins, emerald ore is placed in scattered blocks.
  4. Nether quartz spawns equally in all parts of the Nether.
  5. Unlike most other ores, ancient debris' frequency peaks at layer 15, and quickly tapers off above and below.

History

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009Notch shows interest in adding ore.
0.0.14aCoal Ore JE1 BE1 Iron Ore JE1 BE1 Gold Ore JE1 Added coal, iron, and gold ores.
These ores could be found exposed only in amounts ranging from roughly 10 to 30 in a vein.
October 24, 2009A texture change for gold ore has been teased by Notch.
0.27 SURVIVAL TESTGold Ore JE2 BE1 The texture of gold ore has been changed.
Mining an ore now gives the corresponding block of it.
Java Edition Indev
0.3120100129Diamond Ore JE1 BE1 Added diamond ore.
20100201-2Ores can no longer be mined without a pickaxe.
Java Edition Infdev
Minecraft Infdev20100320Random ore is now placed randomly around the terrain.
20100327Ores now replace stone upon a world reload.
20100330The ore change of replacing stone upon a world reload has been reverted.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.1Redstone Ore JE1 BE1 Added redstone ore.
Java Edition Beta
1.2Lapis Lazuli Ore JE1 BE1 Added lapis lazuli ore.
Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4Coal, lapis lazuli, redstone, and diamond ore now also drop as ore blocks with Silk Touch.
May 21, 2012The week before the release of 12w21a, Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system.[2] At this time, what would become emerald ore was ruby ore.[3]
1.3.112w21aFile:Ruby Ore.png For the release of 12w21a, the block was changed to an emerald ore. The texture for emerald ore remained unchanged, as Jeb forgot to commit the new texture in the snapshot.[4]
12w21bFile:Emerald Ore JE1 BE1.png The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
12w22aAll ores except iron and gold (which give experience when smelted) now drop experience points when mined.
1.513w01aNether Quartz Ore JE1 BE1 Added nether quartz ore.
Texture Update???-2018Iron Ore Texture Update Revision 1 Gold Ore (Texture Update beta revision 1) Diamond Ore TextureUpdate Revision 1 New textures for coal ore, gold ore and diamond ore have been proposed.
1.1418w43aCoal Ore JE2 BE2 Iron Ore JE3 Gold Ore JE3 BE2 Diamond Ore JE2 BE2 Redstone Ore JE2 BE2 Lapis Lazuli Ore JE2 BE2 File:Emerald Ore JE2 BE2.png Nether Quartz Ore JE2 The textures of all ores have been changed.
18w50aNether Quartz Ore JE3 BE2 The texture of nether quartz ore has been changed.
19w08aDiamond Ore JE3 BE3 The texture of diamond ore has been changed.
1.14.1Pre-Release 1Iron Ore JE3 The texture of iron ore has been changed.
1.1620w06aAncient Debris JE1 BE1 Added ancient debris.
20w11aNether Gold Ore JE1 Added nether gold ore.
20w12aNether gold ore now drops gold nuggets instead of itself.
20w13aNether Gold Ore JE2 BE1 The texture of nether gold ore has been changed.
October 3, 2020Copper Ore (pre-release) Copper ore is revealed at Minecraft Live 2020.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.1720w45aCopper Ore JE1 BE1 Added copper ore.
21w07aIron Ore JE4 Coal Ore JE3 Gold Ore JE4 Diamond Ore JE4 Redstone Ore JE3 The texture of Coal Ore, Iron Ore, Gold Ore, Diamond Ore and Redstone Ore has been changed.
February 17, 2021File:Grimstone Iron Ore (pre-release).png File:Grimstone Gold Ore (pre-release).png File:Grimstone Diamond Ore (pre-release).png File:Grimstone Redstone Ore (pre-release).png File:Grimstone Lapis Lazuli Ore (pre-release).png Henrik Kniberg shows grimstone variants of overworld ore.
February 18, 2021Iron Ore (pre-release) Gold Ore (pre-release) Lapis Lazuli Ore (pre-release) Emerald Ore (pre-release) File:Grimstone Iron Ore (pre-release 2).png File:Grimstone Gold Ore (pre-release 2).png File:Grimstone Redstone Ore (pre-release 2).png File:Grimstone Lapis Lazuli Ore (pre-release 2).png JAPPA shows new textures of iron ore, gold ore, lapis lazuli ore, emerald ore and updated grimstone variants of overworld ore.
February 18, 2021File:Grimstone Diamond Ore (pre-release 2).png JAPPA shows a new texture for the grimstone variant of diamond ore.
February 22, 2021Iron Ore (pre-release 2) Gold Ore (pre-release 2) Copper Ore (pre-release 2) Redstone Ore (pre-release) File:Grimstone Iron Ore (pre-release 3).png Grimstone Gold Ore (pre-release 3) Grimstone Diamond Ore (pre-release 3) Grimstone Redstone Ore (pre-release 3) Grimstone Lapis Lazuli Ore (pre-release 3) JAPPA shows updated iron ore, gold ore, copper ore, redstone ore and updated grimstone variant of overworld ore.
1.1721w08aAdded Deepslate Ores.
Iron Ore, Gold Ore, Coal Ore, Lapis Lazuli Ore, Emerald Ore, and Redstone Ore have their textures slightly updated.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0Coal Ore JE1 BE1 Iron Ore JE1 BE1 Gold Ore JE2 BE1 Diamond Ore JE1 BE1 Redstone Ore JE1 BE1 Lapis Lazuli Ore JE1 BE1 Added coal, iron, gold, diamond, redstone, lapis lazuli ores.
v0.3.0Coal ore now drops coal.
v0.3.2Diamond ore now drops a diamond.
Iron and gold ores are now smeltable into ingots.
v0.4.0Lapis lazuli ore now drops lapis lazuli .
v0.8.0build 2Redstone ore now drops redstone dust.
v0.9.0build 1File:Emerald Ore JE1 BE1.png Added emerald ore.
v0.12.1build 1Nether Quartz Ore JE1 BE1 Added nether quartz ore.
Mining ores now gives experience.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Coal Ore JE2 BE2 Iron Ore JE2 BE2 Gold Ore JE3 BE2 Diamond Ore JE2 BE2 Redstone Ore JE2 BE2 Lapis Lazuli Ore JE2 BE2 File:Emerald Ore JE2 BE2.png Nether Quartz Ore JE3 BE2 The textures of all ores have been changed.
1.11.0beta 1.11.0.5Diamond Ore JE3 BE3 The texture of diamond ore has been changed.
1.16.0beta 1.16.0.51Ancient Debris JE1 BE1 Added ancient debris.
beta 1.16.0.57Nether Gold Ore JE2 BE1 Added nether gold ore.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.16.210beta 1.16.210.57Copper Ore JE1 BE1Copper Ore (D) BE1Copper Ore (W) BE1Copper Ore (U) BE1 Added copper ore. It also can be randomly rotated. Bedrock Edition exclusive.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.00 Patch 11.0.1Coal Ore JE1 BE1 Iron Ore JE1 BE1 Gold Ore JE2 BE1 Diamond Ore JE1 BE1 Redstone Ore JE1 BE1 Lapis Lazuli Ore JE1 BE1 Added coal, iron, gold, diamond, redstone, lapis lazuli ores.
TU7All ores except iron and gold (which give experience when smelted) now drops experience points when mined.
TU14 1.04 File:Emerald Ore JE1 BE1.png Nether Quartz Ore JE1 BE1 Added emerald and nether quartz ores.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90Coal Ore JE2 BE2 Iron Ore JE3 Gold Ore JE3 BE2 Diamond Ore JE2 BE2 Redstone Ore JE2 BE2 Lapis Lazuli Ore JE2 BE2 File:Emerald Ore JE2 BE2.png Nether Quartz Ore JE3 BE2 The textures of all ores have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Coal Ore JE1 BE1 Iron Ore JE1 BE1 Gold Ore JE2 BE1 Diamond Ore JE1 BE1 Redstone Ore JE1 BE1 Lapis Lazuli Ore JE1 BE1 File:Emerald Ore JE1 BE1.png Nether Quartz Ore JE1 BE1 Added coal, iron, gold, diamond, redstone, lapis lazuli, emerald and nether quartz ores.

Gallery

Trivia

  • Ancient debris has two ways to generate, similar to gold ore.
  • Since it is exclusive to only one Overworld biome, Emerald ore is actually rarer than ancient debris per chunk.

References


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