Iron Ore

Iron Ore

Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	3
Hardness	3
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

This article is about the ore. For the item, see Iron Ingot. For the mineral block, see Block of Iron. For the nugget, see Iron Nugget.

	“	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 smelted into iron ingots, which are used to make tools and armor.

Obtaining

Natural generation

Iron ore can generate in the Overworld in the form of mineral veins. Iron ore attempts to generate 20 times per chunk in veins of size 1-14, from levels 0 to 63, in all biomes.

Breaking

Iron ore must be mined with a stone pickaxe or higher, or else it drops nothing. Unlike most ores, iron ore always drops itself, regardless of whether the player used Silk Touch.

Block	Iron Ore
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time
Default	15
Wooden	7.5
Stone	1.15
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Netherite	0.5
Golden	1.25

Usage

The primary usage of iron ore is to obtain iron ingots.

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Iron Ingot	Iron Ore + Any fuel	0.7

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Breaking the block	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	None	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	None	0.5	0.75	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	Mining the block	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	Block placed	Blocks	Placing the block	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition: ^{[needs in-game testing]}

Sound	Description	Namespaced ID	Volume	Pitch
	Breaking the block	dig.stone	?	0.8
	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	?	?
	Mining the block	hit.stone	?	0.5
?	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	?	?
?	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	?	?
	Walking on the block	step.stone	?	?
	Placing the block	use.stone	?	0.8

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Translation key
Iron Ore	iron_ore	block.minecraft.iron_ore

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Iron Ore	iron_ore	15	tile.iron_ore.name

Video

Note: Information in this video about iron ingots, blocks, and tools may be outdated. However, the information regarding iron ore is still correct.

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					Added iron ore.
					Iron ore spawns in huge veins, sometimes big enough to protrude into 3 caverns, and could be as big as 167 blocks.
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST					Breaking iron ore now gives the player 1–3 blocks of iron when mined.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		?			Iron ore no longer drops blocks of iron when mined.
		20100129			Before the furnace was added, players had to smelt ore by dropping ore blocks onto fire.
					Iron ore now drops itself when mined.
		20100201-2			Iron ore now requires a stone, iron, or diamond pickaxe to be successfully obtained.
Java Edition Infdev
20100227					Iron ore no longer generates.
20100320					Iron ore veins now generate, but differently.
20100327					Ore veins now appear more like they do today.
					Iron ore now regenerates after the world is reloaded, assuming that the positions of the ore blocks were replaced by stone.
20100330					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 gives the player approximately 2 levels of experience.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 15.
Texture Update		2018			A texture of iron ore has now been proposed.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of iron ore has now been changed.
1.14.1		Pre-Release 1			The texture of iron ore has now been changed, once again.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.3.0					Added iron ore.
0.12.1		?			Iron ore now gives experience when smelted.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of iron ore has now been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added iron ore.
?					Smelting iron ore now gives experience.
		1.90			The texture of iron ore has now been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added iron ore.

Issues

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

Trivia

• There is 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.
• About 0.6 percent of a Minecraft world consists of iron ore.

Gallery

• 

  A vein of iron ore.

• 

  A total of 20 iron ore blocks were obtained from this vein, which was 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]