Ore

For the terrain feature, see Mineral vein. For the blackstone block mistakenly called an ore, see Gilded Blackstone.

All of the current ores.

Ores are uncommon rock-type blocks used to obtain specific resources.

Usage[edit]

Ores isolated down to bedrock

Ores are primarily collected for crafting purposes, such as for tools and armor. Redstone is obtained from redstone ore, which can be used to create redstone circuits. Ore can also be combined to create a block of the material's type.

This graph shows the actual amount of ores found in a relatively small but untapped world as of Java Edition 1.12.2

This graph shows the actual amount of ancient debris found in a relatively small but untapped world as of Java Edition 20w06a

Obtaining resources from ores is as simple as mining them (this is not the case for iron, ancient debris, and gold ores, which must be smelted). Coal, diamond, emerald, and nether quartz ores drop 1 unit corresponding raw materials. Redstone ore drops 4–5 redstone dust, and lapis lazuli ore drops 4–9 lapis lazuli. Note this can be increased greatly with Fortune. All ore blocks except iron, ancient debris and gold require a Silk Touch pickaxe to drop themselves.

As a smelting ingredient[edit]

Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Any raw ore + Any fuel	0.10.70.210.7110.212

Ores can be smelted faster using a blast furnace.

Note: Smelting ores that still drop their resources when directly mined is not as efficient, since smelting gives less experience and only 1 piece of the resource, especially the ones that drop multiple pieces when mined.

Further uses[edit]

All mineral blocks except quartz are crafted by putting 9 of the raw material items in a square. Quartz blocks are irreversibly crafted with 4 nether quartz and thus can be crafted in the inventory.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Any processed ore

All raw materials except quartz can be crafted from their mineral blocks.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Most mineral blocks	99999999

Iron and Gold ingots can be converted into nuggets and vice-versa.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Metal Ingots	99

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Metal Nuggets

Lapis Lazuli can be crafted into a dye, or even used as one in Bedrock Edition.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Lapis Lazuli

Netherite scraps, obtained by smelting ancient debris, is used alongside gold ingots to create netherite ingots. This is the only mineral used alongside another mineral to create an alloy. Netherite tools and armor also require you to first have diamond tools and armor.

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Gold Ingot, Netherite Scrap

Availability[edit]

The following is the distribution of ores according to the altitude (layers are number of blocks above the lowest layer of bedrock) in the Overworld and the Nether. The highest layers that gold, redstone, diamond, and lapis lazuli ore can be found on are two layers lower.^[1]

Overworld[edit]

	Coal^[a]	Iron	Lapis Lazuli	Gold		Redstone^[b]	Diamond	Emerald^[c]
Ore block
Refined resource
Manufactured
Mineral block
Minimal pickaxe for drop	Wooden	Stone		Iron
Found in biome...	Any			Any	Badlands	Any		Mountains
Abundance	Very Common	Common	Rare	Uncommon	Common	Uncommon	Rare	Very Rare
Most found in layers...	5-52	5-54	14-16^[d]	5-29		5-12		5-29
Commonly up to layers...	128	64	23	29	76	12		29
Rare on layers...	129-131	65-67	31-33	31-33	77-79	13-15		30-32
None at or above...	132	68	34	34	80	16		33
Can Replace	Stone Andesite Diorite Granite							Stone ^{[more information needed]}

The Nether[edit]

	Nether Quartz^[e]	Nether Gold	Ancient Debris
Ore block
Refined resource
Manufactured
Mineral block
Minimal pickaxe for drop	Wooden		Diamond
Abundance	Very Common	Common	Very Rare
Found in biome...	Any Nether
Most found in layers...	10-114	15	6-21^[f]
Commonly up to layers...	120	^{[more information needed]}	21
Rare on layers...	123-125	^{[more information needed]}	22-119
None at or above...	128	117	120
Can Replace	Netherrack		Netherrack Basalt Blackstone

↑ This refers to coal ore blocks spawned in ore veins and not as parts of fossils or mansion forges.
↑ Redstone has the same layer and line-size statistics as Diamond, but is generated eight times per chunk as opposed to once.
↑ Instead of multi-block veins, emerald ore is placed in scattered blocks.
↑ Unlike most other ores, lapis lazuli's frequency peaks around layer 15, and slowly tapers off above and below.
↑ Nether quartz spawns equally in all parts of the Nether.
↑ Unlike most other ores, ancient debris' frequency peaks at layer 15, and quickly tapers off above and below.

History[edit]

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding ore.
0.0.14a					Added coal, iron, and gold ores.
0.0.14a					These ores could be found exposed only in amounts ranging from roughly 10 to 30 in a vein.
October 24, 2009					A texture change for gold ore has been teased by Notch.
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST					The texture of gold ore has been changed.
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST					Mining an ore now gives the corresponding block of it.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100129			Added diamond ore.
0.31		20100201-2			Ores can no longer be mined without a pickaxe.
Java Edition Infdev
20100320					Random ore is now placed randomly around the terrain.
20100327					Ores now replace stone upon a world reload.
20100330					The ore change of replacing stone upon a world reload has been reverted.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.1					Added redstone ore.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Added lapis lazuli ore.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Coal, lapis lazuli, redstone, and diamond ore now also drop as ore blocks with Silk Touch.
May 21, 2012					The week before the release of 12w21a, Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system.^[2] At this time, what would become emerald ore was ruby ore.^[3]
1.3.1		12w21a			For the release of 12w21a, the block was changed to an emerald ore. The texture for emerald ore remained unchanged, as Jeb forgot to commit the new texture in the snapshot.^[4]
		12w21b			The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
		12w22a			All ores except iron and gold (which give experience when smelted) now drop experience points when mined.
1.5		13w01a			Added nether quartz ore.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of all ores have been changed.
		18w50a			The texture of nether quartz ore has been changed.
		19w08a			The texture of diamond ore has been changed.
1.14.1		Pre-Release 1			The texture of iron ore has been changed.
1.16		20w06a			Added ancient debris.
		20w11a			Added nether gold ore.
		20w12a			Nether gold ore now drops gold nuggets instead of itself.
		20w13a			The texture of nether gold ore has been changed.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0					Added coal, iron, lapis lazuli, gold, redstone and diamond ores.
0.3.0					Coal ore now drops coal.
0.3.2					Diamond ore now drops a diamond.
0.3.2					Iron and gold ores are now smeltable into ingots.
0.4.0					Lapis lazuli ore now drops lapis lazuli .
0.8.0		build 2			Redstone ore now drops redstone dust.
0.9.0		build 1			Added emerald ore.
0.12.1		build 1			Added nether quartz ore.
0.12.1		build 1			Mining ores now gives experience.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of all ores have been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.5			The texture of diamond ore has been changed.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added ancient debris.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.57			Added nether gold ore.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added coal, iron, lapis lazuli, gold, redstone, and diamond ores.
TU7		1.00			All ores except iron and gold (which give experience when smelted) now drops experience points when mined.
TU14		1.04			Added emerald and nether quartz ores.
		1.90			The textures of all ores have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added coal, iron, lapis lazuli, gold, redstone, diamond, emerald and nether quartz ores.