Iron Ore

Iron Ore

Transparent	No
Luminance	0
Blast resistance	15
Tool
Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Experience	Smelted: 0.7
Drops	Itself
Data value	dec: 15 hex: F bin: 1111
Name	iron_ore

This article is about the ore. For the item, see Iron Ingot.

	“	I never fail to get a little bit excited when I mine into a vein of iron ore. After a while in every Minecraft world, coal isn't really worth picking up any more because it's so easy to find when you need it. But I never miss an opportunity - even when I'm being pursued by a horde of hissing creepers - to grab a bit of iron.	„
		— Duncan Geere

Iron ore is a mineral block found underground. It is the most common mineral that can be used to make tools and armor.

Obtaining

Iron ore will drop as an item if mined by a stone pickaxe or better. If mined by any other tool, it will drop nothing.

Block	Iron Ore
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time
Hand	15
Wooden	7.5
Stone	1.15
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Golden	1.25

Natural generation

Iron occurs only around from bedrock to slightly above sea level (layers 1-63). However, almost all of the iron ore will be at the lower levels. On average, there are about 77 iron ores per chunk.

Veins can vary in size, but the most common is 2×2×2. Iron always comes in veins of 4 to 10 unless dirt, gravel, a cave, or another ore overlapped into it. Each block in the vein, which otherwise would be stone, has a random chance of being iron ore instead.

Usage

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Iron Ingot	Iron Ore + Any fuel

History

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding iron ore.
May 23, 2009					Notch says he accomplished adding iron veins in stone.
0.0.14a					Iron ore added. It spawns in huge veins, sometimes big enough to protrude into 3 caverns, and could be as big as 167 ores.
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST					Breaking iron ore gave the player 1 - 3 blocks of iron when mined.
Java Edition Indev
?					Now no longer drops blocks of iron when mined.
0.31			0.31 (January 29, 2010)		Before the furnace was added, players had to smelt ore by dropping ore blocks onto fire.
					Iron ore now drops itself when mined.
			0.31 (February 1, 2010, 2)		Iron ore requires a stone, iron, or diamond pickaxe to be successfully obtained.
Java Edition Infdev
February 27, 2010					Iron ore no longer generates.
?					Iron ore veins now generate, but differently.
March 27, 2010					Ore veins now appear more like they do today.
					Iron ore will regenerate after the world is reloaded, assuming that the positions of the ore blocks were replaced by stone.
March 30, 2010					Iron ore no longer regenerates.
Java Edition
1.3.1			12w22a		Smelting iron ore, along with other ores, blocks and items, gives the player experience orbs when taking the item out of the furnace. One stack of iron ore will give the player approximately 2 levels of experience.
					Inventory sprites for blocks were flipped from left to right, changing to .
1.13			17w47a		Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 15.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.3.0					Added iron ore.
0.12.1			?		Now gives experience when smelted.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added iron ore.
?					Smelting it gives experience

Issues

Issues relating to "Iron Ore" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• There's no particular beige iron ore in real life. Colors of common real life iron minerals range from black or red to gold-yellow but none of them are truly beige.

Gallery

• 

  A vein of iron ore.

• 

  A total of 20 iron ore blocks were obtained from this vein, which is most likely composed of two smaller veins.

• 

  Iron ores exposed in a ravine.

• 

  An exposed single iron ore block that generated in a hole in the ground leading to a cave.

• 

  A vein of iron ore.

References

Blocks

View at: Template:Blocks/content [edit]