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File:283694 432150870160318 791769060 n.jpg

A picture of every ore except emerald.

File:Screen shot 2012-05-26 at 11.38.18 AM.png

All of the current ores.

Ore is a block type in Minecraft. Ores are primarily collected for crafting purposes, such as for tools and armor. Redstone Ore is used as a type of "wiring" that can be used to create Redstone circuits, compasses, clocks, and other items. Ore can also be combined to create a block of the material's type for iron, gold, diamond, lapis lazuli, and emerald. Blocks are hard to make, as they require nine pieces of material to create.

Availability

PercentOfOreByHeight

This graph shows the actual amount of ore found in a relatively small but untapped world.

Extracted Ores

Ores extracted down to bedrock

File:Ore Veins.png

Exposed Ore veins.

In Minecraft Beta, the following is the distribution of ores according to the altitude. (Layers are number of blocks above the lowest layer of bedrock.) Since the beta 1.8 patch, the highest layers that Gold, Redstone, Diamond, and Lapis Lazuli can be found on are now two layers lower.[1] The graph on the right shows the ore distribution in 1.1. The change to the 256-block worlds in the weekly releases before 1.2 did not affect world generation, as seen in this interactive chart.

Ore type Most found on...* Commonly found up to... Rare on levels... None at or above... Pickaxe needed for drop
Coal Layer 29 Layer 128 Layer 129-131 Layer 132 Any pickaxe
Iron Layer 35 Layer 64 Layer 65-67 Layer 68 Stone, Iron or Diamond
Lapis Lazuli Layer 14 Layer 23 Layer 31-33 Layer 33 Stone, Iron or Diamond
Gold Layer 20 Layer 29 Layer 31-33 Layer 34 Iron or Diamond
Diamond Layer 10 Layer 12 Layer 13-15 Layer 16 Iron or Diamond
Redstone Layer 8 Layer 15 Layer 16 Layer 17 Iron or Diamond
Emerald** Layer 20 Layer 29 Layer 29-31 Layer 33 Iron or Diamond

*Based on the graph on the right.

**Only in Extreme Hills or Extreme Hills Edge biome. Also, the distribution is different - instead of multi-block veins, emerald ore is placed in scattered blocks. (As of Weekly Snapshot 12w42b, emerald will now spawn in veins.)

Redstone has the same layer and line-size statistics as Diamond, but is generated 8 times per chunk as opposed to 1.

Ore is created by picking two points a certain distance apart, drawing a line between the points, and filling in any Stone blocks within a certain distance of the line with the ore being done in that round. Source (Section 3.11)

In chunks generated prior to Beta 1.6, ore also varies depending on the section of the map it is generated in due to a bug (fixed in 1.6) in the spawning algorithm. In the quadrant southwest of the point (0,0), ore spawns approximately 50% more than in the quadrant northeast of the point (0,0). The quadrants northwest and southeast of the point (0,0) split the difference between the extremes. (See image below) Any chunks generated after Beta 1.6 do not show this disparity as the spawning algorithm has been fixed. The bug fix did not modify any already existing chunks.

File:Ores-By-Quadrant.png

Ore density by quadrant before Beta 1.6

Ore varieties

Finished raw materials

Craftable blocks

History

c
ClassicThe player could only find exposed Coal, Gold, and Iron in amounts ranging from roughly 10 to 30 in a vein. Since there is the lack of a crafting system, these can only be mined for fun and will not yield any useful materials.
i
0.31Diamond Ore was added to the game.
a
1.0.1Redstone Ore was added to the game.
b
1.2Lapis Lazuli Ore was added to the game.
r
1.0Coal, Diamond, Redstone, and Lapis Lazuli can now also drop as ore blocks with Silk Touch.
1.3.1Emerald Ore was added to the game. The Emeralds it yields can be used to trade with villagers. All ores except Gold and Iron drop experience points when mined.

Video

Ore/video

Trivia

  • Iron and Gold are the only ores that drop the actual ore block when mined without the Silk Touch Enchantment. All of the other ores drop the usable item when mined.
  • Ore veins do not pass through chunk borders.
  • Lapis Lazuli and Emerald are the only two ores that do not have the same texture as the other ores. All of the other ores have the same texture, but with a different color.
  • Gold ore is the only ore that can't be mined by its own pickaxe.
  • Emerald and Lapis Lazuli are the only ores that cannot be used to make a tool.
  • Redstone and Coal are the only 2 ores that cannot be crafted into a placeable block.

References

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