Gold Ore

Transparency	No
Luminance	No
Blast resistance	15
Tool
Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Experience	Smelted: 1
Drops	Itself
Data value	dec: 14 hex: E bin: 1110
Name	gold_ore

This article is about the unprocessed ore. For the processed ore, see Gold Ingot.

	“	It's Gold! Striking this magnificent mineral is something of a rite of passage in Minecraft. After spending ages mining through cobblestone and coal, you finally see a shiny gleam winking at you from inside the rocks. A few whacks with your pick later, you've struck gold! (Ore!) Said gold ore can then be smelted into shining nuggets of success. This mineral has multiple crafting uses in the game, like clocks and powered rails. Sadly, the golden mining tools you can craft with it may be powerful, but they also break quickly.	„
		—Tom Stone^[1]

Gold ore is one of the rarest types of mineral blocks found underground.

Obtaining[edit | edit source]

Gold ore will drop as an item if mined by an iron or diamond pickaxe. If mined by any other tool, it will drop nothing.

Block	Gold Ore
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time^{[note 1]}
Hand	15
Wooden	7.5
Stone	3.75
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Golden	1.25

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds.

Natural generation[edit | edit source]

Gold ore generates in veins of 4-8 blocks. In the vast majority of biomes, it only appears in the bottom 32 layers of the map. From levels 2-29, gold ore's occurrence underground is at 0.1437% (about five times as rare as iron). On average there are 8.2 gold ores per chunk.

In mesa biomes, an additional 20 veins generate between layers 32 and 79 (inclusive).

Usage[edit | edit source]

Smelting ingredient[edit | edit source]

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Gold Ingot	Gold Ore + Any fuel

Video[edit | edit source]

History[edit | edit source]

Classic
0.0.14a_01				Gold ore added. Found in higher elevations, gold ore was often found in exposed surface-level veins.
0.0.14a_01				Breaking gold ore gave the player 1 - 3 blocks of gold when mined.
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST 9				Gold ore was retextured.
Indev
?				No longer drops gold blocks.
0.31			January 29, 2010	Before the furnace was added, players had to smelt ore by dropping ore blocks onto fire.
			January 29, 2010	Gold ore now drops itself when mined.
			February 1, 2010	Gold ore requires an iron or diamond pickaxe to be successfully obtained.
Beta
1.6				The “ore quadrant" bug, causing different quadrants of the map to have more or less ore, was fixed.
1.8				The maximum layer for gold was reduced by 2, along with some other ores.
Official release
1.3.1			12w22a	Smelting gold ore, along with other ores, blocks and items, gives the player experience orbs when taking the item out of the furnace. One stack of gold ore will give the player approximately 3 levels of experience.
1.10			16w20a	20 additional veins of gold ore generate in mesa biomes between Y=32 and Y=79.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0				Added gold ore.
0.3.2				Now can be mined and processed correctly.
0.10.0			build 1	Gold ore can generate at any level in a mesa biome.
0.12.1				Now gives experience points when smelted.
Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added gold ore.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13	20 additional veins of gold ore generate in mesa biomes between Y=32 and Y=79.

The original gold ore texture
Gold could generate above the ground in Classic

Issues[edit | edit source]

Issues relating to “Gold Ore” are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Gold ore blocks naturally occurring next to a lapis lazuli block, a redstone ore block and lava
Gold ore blocks in a cave
Gold ore exposed by a river in a Mesa biome (Pocket Edition)