Ore (2024)

An Ore is a type of block naturally found in Minecraft. Ores are primarily collected for crafting purposes, such as tools, armor, and more. Redstone Ore is used as a type of "wiring", which can be used to create redstone circuits, compasses, clocks and more. Coal Ore can be used to smelt metal ores (i.e. gold and iron) out of their stone bodies. Ore can also be combined to create a block of the material's type for iron, gold, diamond, and lapis lazuli. Blocks are hard to make, requiring nine pieces of each material to create, and are mainly recommended for storage purposes or building. Just remember, layer 1 is the lowest layer of Bedrock (No longer true as of 1.17), so no ores can be found there! They can, however, be spawned very close to the bottom of the map, at layer 2. Certain ores have the habit of spawning at any layer.

An ore block looks like a usual Stone block with different colored shards or gems embedded into it (they are always the same color on each ore), however some ores like Glowstone Ore are different in that respect.

Note: In the upcoming 1.17 update, ore distribution will change drastically, according to this blog post.

Overworld Ores[]

Coal Ore[]

Main article: Coal Ore

Coal Ore is a very common black ore that can be found underground or in rock formations such as mountains, in relatively large deposits. 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[]

Main article: Iron Ore

Iron Ore is most commonly found underground in small veins. It can be smelted into iron ingots, which can be used to craft many useful items, including armor, weapons, tools and minecart rails. Iron ore can be found at layer 64 and below. The layers are counted from bottom till top. Iron can only be mined with a stone, iron or diamond pickaxe.

Redstone Ore[]

Main article: Redstone Ore

Redstone Ore is a type of ore found less than 16 levels above the bedrock layer. Added in the third Secret Friday Update, redstone ore is slightly more common than gold. When one tries to mine redstone, they must have an pickaxe of iron or higher or else they won't get the ore. When the redstone ore block is destroyed, several piles of Redstone will appear, a property unique to Redstone.

Redstone is currently used in the construction of various traps, mechanisms, and contraptions dependent on simple circuits. After the 1.9. Pre-Release 3, redstone dust can be used for brewing. Only able to be mined by an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe. It glows when activated as a wire, or just one piece on the ground.

If there is a block or entitiy update adjacent to a Redstone Ore block, this ore will transform into a technical block called Glowing Redstone Ore which emits 9 light level and some particle effects (similar to that of a Nether Portal, only red).

There has been even more redstone things in the 1.5 Redstone Update (see all here).

Gold Ore[]

Main article: Gold Ore

Gold Ore can be found deep underground in small veins. Gold Ore can be smelted to make gold ingots which can make a variety of tools and weapons. Gold is a very soft material, and is generally considered a bad choice for crafting due to its low durability and uses. A gold tool has the strength of a wooden tool. It wears out much quicker, despite mining at light speed.

Gold is mainly used in decorations. Nine gold ingots can be placed in a crafting square to make a Gold Block as the gold block can turn back into nine ingots, making a practical "storage unit". Otherwise, gold ore are somewhat obsolete compared to other ores. It can only be mined with an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe. This ore's pickaxe can't even mine it's own ore.

Lapis Lazuli Ore[]

Main article: Lapis Lazuli Ore

Lapis Lazuli Ore (sometimes called Lapis or Lazuli) is a rare ore block that can be found in abandoned mine shafts or in areas between levels 13 and 14. When mined, it turns into four Lapis Lazuli dyes, which can be used to dye wool or a sheep to turn it blue, or create a decorative Lapis Lazuli Block. This ore can only be mined with an Stone, Iron or Diamond Pickaxe.

Diamond Ore[]

Main article: Diamond Ore

Diamond Ore is an extremely rare, valuable ore and is only found very deep underground and in sparse veins (the vein can spawn diagonally). Diamond Ore can be mined by using an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe only and when mined it will drop a Diamond.

Diamonds can be used to create Diamond Tools, which have the strongest durability and uses in the game. A diamond pickaxe is the only pickaxe which can mine Obsidian, until netherite was introduced in 1.16, adding the netherite pickaxe which can mine anything a diamond one can.

Emerald Ore[]

Main article: Emerald Ore

Emerald Ore is the rarest ore to date in Minecraft (25 times more so than Diamond Ore, while almost always spawning in only one-block veins). When mined (with an Iron Pickaxe or higher), it drops an Emerald; the only implemented use of Emeralds to date is for trading with Villagers. An easier way to get emeralds is to open a cow or pig farm, and collect your drops and go to the nearest butcher. Remember not to cook them, butcher villagers only accept raw.

Ruby Ore[]

Main article: Emerald Ore#History

Ruby Ore was added during the 1.3 snapshots, but was shortly replaced by Emerald Ore. It is was replaced because the then-current developer was struggling with colorblindness, and kept confusing ores. This ore is currently unexistant, however some mods use this old texture. Ruby and Emerald have an appearence much similar to real ores.

Copper Ore[]

Main article: Copper Ore

Note: This ore is currently only available in 1.17 snapshots.

Copper Ore is going to be added in the 1.17 - Caves and Cliffs Update. It is mainly used for decoration, the Spyglass, and the Lightning Rod.

Nether Ores[]

Nether Quartz Ore[]

Main article: Nether Quartz Ore

Nether Quartz is a special material found in the nether that is great for all of your redstonery needs.

Ancient Debris[]

Main article: Ancient Debris

Ancient Debris is an ore added in 1.16,appearing in snapshot 20w06a.It is a rare ore found under lava lakes. This ore cannot be blown up, so using beds, TNT, or creepers are safe to use to find it.Smelting this ore will give you netherite scrap.

Netherrack Gold Ore/Gilded Blackstone[]

Main article: Gold Ore

As of 1.16, gold can be found in the Nether, but only drops a gold nugget, unless you mine it with a Silk Touch pickaxe, and smelt it for a full ingot. Unlike it's overworld self, this ore can be mined with every pickaxe, even a wooden pickaxe can mine and collect the drops, probably because it only drops nuggets.

In bastion remnants, gilded blackstone can be found, which could give itself or gold nuggets.

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 are just cube shaped, and some of them look extremely odd.

External Links[]

• Ores of Minecraft Wiki - A wiki about Minecraft's Ores (mostly talking about modded ones).

Gallery[]