This article is about the block. For the terrain feature that is made up of ores, see Ore (feature). For other, see Ore (disambiguation). For the blackstone block mistakenly called an ore, see Gilded Blackstone. For the mineral commonly mistaken as an ore, see Block of Amethyst.
An ore is any uncommon rock-type block used to obtain specific resources.
Ore
Normal
Deepslate
Normal
Deepslate
Normal
Deepslate
Normal
Deepslate
Nether
Normal
Deepslate
Normal
Deepslate
Normal
Deepslate
Normal
Deepslate
| Renewable | No |
|---|---|
| Stackable | Yes (64) |
| Tool | 
|
| Blast resistance |
|
| Hardness |
|
| Luminous | No |
| Transparent | No |
| Flammable | No |
| Catches fire from lava |
No |
| Map color |
|
| Note block instrument | Bass Drum |
| Sulfur cube archetype |
|
Usage
Ore blocks are primarily collected for their resources, which are used for crafting items, such as tools, weapons, armor, and redstone circuits. The resource can also be combined to create a block of the material's type.
Most ores drop their resource when mined, and require a Silk Touch pickaxe to drop themselves.
- Ores that drop 1 unit of their corresponding material:
- Coal ore and its deepslate variant.
- Diamond ore and its deepslate variant.
- Emerald ore and its deepslate variant.
- Nether quartz ore.
- Ores that drop 1 unit of their raw material:
- Ores that drop multiple units of their corresponding material:
- Copper ore and its deepslate variant drop 2–5 raw copper.
- Redstone ore and its deepslate variant drop 4–5 redstone dust.
- Lapis lazuli ore and its deepslate variant drop 4–9 lapis lazuli.
- Nether gold ore drops 2–6 gold nuggets instead of raw gold.
The average yield of any of the ores in the list above can be increased by using a pickaxe with Fortune.
Ancient debris drops itself when mined and must be smelted to obtain netherite scrap.
Smelting ingredient
Ores can be smelted faster using a blast furnace.
It is not efficient to mine with Silk Touch and then smelt an ore block that normally drops multiple pieces of its resource, because smelting these ores yields less experience and only 1 piece of the resource. Nether gold ore is the only exception, as each ore block drops an average of 8.8 gold nuggets even when mined with Fortune III, which is less than a guaranteed gold ingot obtained from smelting the ore obtained using Silk Touch.
Distribution
Main article: Ore (feature)
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. For detailed generation, see Ore (feature).
Overworld
For the pre-1.17 ore distribution, see Ore/Pre-1.17 distribution.
For the 1.17 ore distribution, see Ore/Pre-1.18 distribution.
 Coal[a]
|
 Copper
|
 Lapis Lazuli
|
 Iron
|
 Gold
|
 Redstone
|
 Diamond[a]
|
 Emerald[b]
| |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stone variant | 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
| Deepslate variant[c] | 
|
|
|
|
|
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| Raw resource | 
|
|
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| ||
| Minimum pickaxe tier required |  Wooden
|
 Stone
|
 Iron
| |||||||
| Found in biome | Any |  DripstoneCaves[d] |
Any |  Badlands[e]
|
Any |  Meadow Cherry Grove Grove Snowy Slopes Jagged Peaks Frozen Peaks Stony Peaks Windswept Hills Windswept Gravelly Hills Windswept Forest
| ||||
| Abundance | Very common | Common | Very common | Rare | Common | Rare | Common | Uncommon | Very rare | Uncommon |
| Total range | 0 to 320 | -16 to 112 | -64 to 64 | -64 to 72
80 to 320 |
-64 to 32 | -64 to 256 | -64 to 16 | -64 to 16 | -16 to 320 | |
| Most found in layers[f] | 45 | 43 | -2 | 14 | -18 | 32 to 256 | -59 | -59 | 85 | |
| None at layers | -64 to -1 | -64 to -17 and 113 to 320 | 65 to 320 | 73 to 79 | 33 to 320 | 257 to 320 | 16 to 320 | 16 to 320 | -64 to -17 | |
-
The figures show the ore distribution by layer in Java Edition 1.18.2 -
Ore distribution 1.18-1.20.2
The Nether
 Nether Quartz
|
 Nether Gold
|
 Ancient Debris
| ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ore block | 
|
|
| |
| Raw resource | 
|
| ||
| Minimum pickaxe tier required |
Wooden
|
 Diamond
| ||
| Found in biome | Any Nether biome | |||
| Abundance | Very common | Common | Very rare | |
| Most found in layers[f] | 114 | 16[g] | ||
| Commonly up to layers | 120 | 95 | 23 | |
| Rare on layers | 123-125 | 96-116 | 22-119 | |
| None at or above | 128 | 117 | 120 | |
-
![Nether ore distribution as of 1.20.4[1]](https://minecraft.wiki/images/thumb/Nether-ores-1-20-4.png/120px-Nether-ores-1-20-4.png?a0618)
Nether ore distribution as of 1.20.4[1]
- ↑ a b This refers to ore blocks spawned in blobs and not as parts of fossils.
- ↑ Instead of multi-block blobs, emerald ore is placed in scattered blocks.
- ↑ Deepslate and its ore variants only generate under layer 8.
- ↑ Copper ore blobs generate in larger sizes in this biome.
- ↑ Gold ore has increased frequency in this biome.
- ↑ a b This is based on data acquired from real world generation. Maximum values in world generation data files are different because in actual generation, terrain and features might prevent ores from spawning.
- ↑ Unlike most other ores, ancient debris' frequency peaks at layer 16, and quickly tapers off above and below.
History
Java Edition
| Java Edition Classic | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 21, 2009 | Notch shows interest in adding ores. Originally, only iron ore was planned. | ||||||
| 0.0.14a | May 23, 2009 | Added coal ore, iron ore, and gold ore. They can be found in veins of 200 on average. | |||||
| release | Ores could be found exposed only in amounts ranging from roughly 10 to 30 in a blob. | ||||||
| 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST | Mining an ore now gives the corresponding block of it. | ||||||
| Java Edition Indev | |||||||
| 0.31 | 20100128-2200 | Added diamond ore. | |||||
| 20100201-2227 | Ores can no longer be mined without a pickaxe. | ||||||
| Java Edition Infdev | |||||||
| 20100320 | Random ores are now placed randomly around the world. | ||||||
| 20100327 | Ores now replace stone upon a world reload. | ||||||
| 20100330 | The 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 | Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system,[2] showcasing ruby ore.[3] | ||||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w21a | Added emerald ore, which replaced Ruby ore. | |||||
| 12w22a | All ores (except iron and gold) now drop experience points when mined. | ||||||
| 1.5 | 13w01a | Added nether quartz ore. | |||||
| 1.16 | 20w06a | Added ancient debris. | |||||
| 20w11a | Added nether gold ore. | ||||||
| 20w12a | Nether gold ore now drops gold nuggets instead of itself. | ||||||
| October 3, 2020 | Copper ore is revealed at Minecraft Live 2020. | ||||||
| 1.17 | 20w45a | Added copper ore. | |||||
| February 17, 2021 | Henrik Kniberg showcases deepslate (then grimstone) variants of Overworld ore. | ||||||
| 21w08a | Added deepslate iron ore, deepslate gold ore, deepslate diamond ore, deepslate redstone ore, and deepslate lapis lazuli ore. | ||||||
| 21w10a | Added deepslate coal ore, deepslate emerald ore, and deepslate copper ore. They do not generate in Survival mode as they are intended for usage by map makers and datapack creators. | ||||||
| Fossils that generate below Y=0 now generate with deepslate diamond ore. | |||||||
| 21w14a | If iron, gold and copper ores are broken without Silk Touch, they drop raw metal instead. | ||||||
| 21w16a | Deepslate emerald ore now generates naturally. | ||||||
| Added ore veins in the prototype data pack, which contain copper ore and deepslate iron ore. | |||||||
| 21w17a | Deepslate coal ore and deepslate copper ore now generate naturally. | ||||||
| 1.18 | Experimental Snapshot 1 | Deepslate emerald ore and deepslate coal ore no longer generate naturally. | |||||
| 21w40a | Deepslate emerald ore can now generate naturally, again. | ||||||
| 21w44a | Deepslate coal ore can now generate naturally, again. | ||||||
| 1.20.2 | 23w31a | Increased the generate amount of diamond ore below Y=0. | |||||
Bedrock Edition
Legacy Console Edition
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox 360 | Xbox One | PS3 | PS4 | PS Vita | Wii U | Switch | |
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added coal ore, iron ore, gold ore, diamond ore, redstone ore, and lapis lazuli ore. |
| TU7 | All ores (except iron and gold) now drop experience points when mined. | ||||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Added emerald ore and nether quartz ore. | |||||
| TU43 | CU33 | 1.36 | 1.36 | 1.36 | Patch 13 | 20 additional blobs of gold ore now generate in mesa biomes between Y=32 and Y=79. | |
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1.0 | Added coal ore, iron ore, gold ore, diamond ore, redstone ore, lapis lazuli ore, emerald ore, and nether quartz ore. | ||||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Ore" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.
Trivia
- Since it is exclusive to only two categories of Overworld biomes (mountains and windswept hills), emerald ore is actually rarer than ancient debris per chunk.
- The texture of ores were changed in 1.17 to make them distinct for color blind players.[4]
Gallery
Screenshots
-
All of the current Overworld ores, including deepslate variants -
Naturally generated diamond ore, redstone ore and lapis lazuli ore found in a canyon (Check the image for seed and coordinates) -
Multiple ores found in one cave -
Several types of ore in a ravine -
Some ore being mined -
This graph shows the actual amount of ores found in a relatively small but untapped world as of Java Edition 1.12.2. -
The pre-Caves & Cliffs ore textures -
This graph shows the actual amount of ancient debris found in a relatively small but untapped world in Java Edition 20w06a.
Mojang screenshots
-
Floating ores and lava
Caves and Cliffs development
-
21w07a texture comparison -
The now and soon texture comparison of the ores and their deepslate variants (before 21w08a) -
Normal ores generating within deepslate (before the addition of deepslate ores) -
Early deepslate ore textures -
An image showing another texture for deepslate diamond ore which improves on blending the ore texture with the base deepslate -
Ditto -
More ore texture revisions -
More ore texture revisions -
An image showing new iron and diamond texture -
21w08a texture comparison -
21w10a texture comparison -
Ore distribution in 21w07a -
Ore distribution in 21w08a/21w08b -
Ore distribution in 21w10a -
Ore distribution in 21w18a
References
- ↑ https://github.com/Parcival791/DistribHelperTxt
- ↑ "... and this is why I'm playing with Testificates: (work in progress, as usual)" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X (formerly Twitter), May 21, 2012
- ↑ snapshot 12w21a/b lang/en_US.lang: tile.oreRuby.name=Ruby Ore
- ↑ "Adjusted the new ores. If you are color blind, please give feedback - and state what kind of color blindness you have :)" – @JasperBoerstra (Jasper Boerstra) on X (formerly Twitter), February 18, 2021
