Talk:Ore

Seeing what's written about the coal, there are formula's known about the ore generating. Is it possible to draw a graph for the types of ore for how many % is usually that ore in a specific layer? I think it would be interesting.

I will upload an image showing the differences in ore by quadrant when I get the permissions. I am currently gathering information on all ores by layer and quadrant. NZPhoenix 06:13, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

There needs to be a diamond ore image on the page. Timberdoodle 18:44, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

Huh? There is... --Warlock 18:45, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

In the section ore varieties I'm not seeing any image. Timberdoodle 01:12, 22 May 2011 (UTC)

According to this page, gold (and lapis lazuli) are found in layer 35 of the map, if only rarely. The thing is, I have now peeled back all of layer 36 of the map in a 130 by 130 block space (don't ask), and am currently well into peeling back layer 35, and I have found no gold or lapis ore blocks. What gives?!? Wandergirl108 01:15, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I DID find gold ore while digging out layer 35, but that means that it didn't appear until layer 34, so again, what gives?Wandergirl108 13:39, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

It's all about chance and randomness: Gold is, very rarely, on layer 36. It is like 0.01% though, so assuming that is a correct guess you would on average find 1 gold per 10.000 blocks you remove. Since gold normally has about 4 pieces per layer, you'd need to mine 40.000 blocks at that layer to find one gold vein, on average. That is a 200x200 square. Again, on average, so you might as well need to mine 4 times as much if you are unlucky. Jippiedoe 13:51, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

This really needs updating, it sure is different now and I want to know how much. Atleast clay is a lot less rare. Jippiedoe 10:31, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

i totally agree, but people didn't leave any sources on the program they made the diagram with, for me to check if it is updated to 1.8.1 yet edit: found it it's called mian (minecraft analyzer) -Wally

https://web.archive.org/web/20221031222843/https://i.imgur.com/djSvZ.png There is a picture that someone made about the new ore hights. Finally I know why my mine didn't work: I mined with layer 12 as the floor!Jippiedoe 14:05, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

Could someone add some chart about how many blocks of ore you can find per chunk? Or, I'll conduct an experiment in MCEdit that removes all stone, sand, gravel, dirt, lava, water, and sandstone; conducting it in several biomes, when I have time. Skyminer707 20:08, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I love this information, but is there a way to make it into more consistent units? Average number/chunk?  % of stone blocks? etc. I'm trying to come up with a reliable equation of efficiency*durability*(frequency of materials) to determine which tool set is really the best "value". I'm coming to the conclusion it's probably stone tools and iron armor, but maybe leather if you have a ranch. Of course enchantments can make the rarer materials more worthwhile... 130.212.135.38 03:00, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

I've updated some of this information from other parts of the wiki. User-100128569 (talk) 18:27, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Now that the 1.8 update is out, should I put the the default values for Spawn Size and Spawn Frequency in the table? 98.245.111.235 17:03, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

You should probably wait a bit, since 1.8 isn't quite out yet, only the pre-releases. 1.8 itself will be released September 2nd. --Sanoth^t|c 17:07, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Ore type	Most Found	Common	Rare	None above	Pickaxe needed for drop	Dimension
👁 Image Coal	5-52	128	129-131	132+	Wood or better	Overworld
👁 Image Iron	5-54	64	65-67	68+	Stone or better	Overworld
👁 Image Copper	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	64+	Stone or better	Overworld
👁 Image Lapis Lazuli	13-17	23	31-33	34+	Stone or better	Overworld
👁 Image Gold	5-29	29 (76 Badlands)	31-33 (77-79 Badlands)	34+ (80+ Badlands)	Iron or better	Overworld
👁 Image Redstone	5-12	12	13-19	20+	Iron or better	Overworld
👁 Image Diamond	5-12	12	13-19	20+	Iron or better	Overworld
👁 Image Emerald Mountains Only	5-29	29	30-32	33+	Iron or better	Overworld
👁 Image Nether Quartz	10-114	120	123-125	128+	Wood or better	Nether
👁 Image Nether Gold	10-114	120	123-125	128+	Wood or better	Nether
👁 Image Ancient Debris	13-17	23	22-119	120+	Diamond or better	Nether

by DindinYT 10:00 AM (4th December 2020)

I remember hearing or reading somewhere that deposits of dirt or gravel underground always indicates there's an ore vein next to it. I've been playing the game since 1.5, and this has at least almost always turned out to be true. Is there some sort of deliberate pairing of the two in the generation code, or is this just a coincidence (i.e. any deposit of gravel or dirt is very likely to be next to an ore vein because, by the time you've dug through one, you've dug beyond the average distance between veins)? Steve the Pocket 00:51, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

I have gone down mine shafts that I had been down dozens of times, and seen ore blocks of iron, coal, and occasionally rarer things like redstone or gold. They weren't in a dark corner or anything, they were in plain sight, even places I had to walk over multiple times. I can accept that I could miss blocks sometimes, but this has happened too often and in places too easy to see to be normal. I'm now starting to wonder if ore blocks can spawn in caves after chunk generation, or, if not spawn, be converted from existing blocks. I had considered it before, but do so now more than ever after Notch's GDC talk. In it, he mentioned that players had yet to discover something (though he said it wasn't a crafting recipe), and he mentioned both that the game has its' roots in serious physics and that unexpected consequences sometimes made it into the game. Additionally, in a newly created world, I was a level of 12 when I found a 6-block vein of coal next to a lava pool. While this in no way constitutes evidence, as coal can be found virtually anywhere, including places where one might expect diamond to be, it is interesting to think that if my theory is correct, this might naturally turn into diamond. This is all mildly crazy conjecture, and so I would welcome all of your thoughts and criticisms on the subject.

I don't believe you're crazy but you're definitely wrong. If I used a map viewer and highlighted all the diamonds. Played for a few days, then used the map viewer again there would be the same diamonds in the same locations (excluding ones I've mined of course). I've done this as well. Just today I noticed a pocket of iron in my xp farm room that I've been in dozens of times. It's the locations you've been too that you've set a routine where this happens since you do things more by muscle memory and less by sight. --Moxxy 01:43, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

It seems this link http://www.digital-trauma.de/mc.html is broken. It opens the page, but the chart does not work. –Preceding unsigned comment was added by 147.206.4.254 ^(Talk) 14:30, 4 January 2013 (UTC). Please sign your posts with ~~~~

Works fine for me. Check your browser javascript settings. --Kanegasi ☺C 18:38, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

I've noticed that iron, redstone, lapis, gold, and diamond ores are always the of the same vein types. I've changed some articles so that the vein size is 4 to 8, based on personal experience. (Before, they said 1-9 or 1-10. Also, iron may have 9 as a possibility.) Am I right? Also, are nether quartz ores of the same type? HotdogPi ⑬㊲ 04:05, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Minecraft has a lot

I think you should not put this on the talk page. You are just wasting space!!!! Enderderp572 00:14, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Does anybody have any idea why Lapis, Emerald, And Nether Quartz have different textures than the rest of the ores? It seems weird they are ... well, different. I mean, Emerald ore doesn't look pixelated at first glance! Jeb should totally change them to look the same. If he adds Ruby, I could understand a different texture, but really? Enderderp572 20:01, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

I don't pretend to understand their reasoning, but I note that the "different" ores are also the same ones that are not on the "main sequence" of tool progression. That doesn't fully explain why redstone ore looks like the others, but redstone does have its own special role. --Mental Mouse 02:21, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

I don't understand. I still think they should all have the same texture. Enderderp572 00:14, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

ALWAYS when i see emerald ore i think its diamond!

Also if you noticed,emeralds spawn more often than diamonds do.

This is unnecessary for a talk page. -98.230.115.82 23:43, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

I copied the "ideal layer" column on the ores table from the Altitude page, but it keeps getting reverted. - MinecraftPhotos4U (talk) 19:04, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

It should be removed from that page too. It seems to be made up somewhat haphazardly, for example it claims 12 is best for redstone ore but 13 is best for diamonds, despite them having identical spawn ranges and diamonds being less common on 13 than they are at 11 or 12. Anomie x (talk) 21:34, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

In the section, Ores#Availability, it says "The graph on the right shows the ore distribution.". Except there's no graph on the right. There is a graph showing ore percentage distribution in the above section. -EatingSilencerforBreakfast (talk) 22:40, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

This might be an error with how the stuff is typed out. It happened to me a couple of times before. —98.230.115.82 23:46, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

For some reason all the distribution graphs are in the "Usage" section. This is illogical and likely is the cause of parent comment's valid confusion. Distribution graphs ahould be in the section *titled* "Distribution".

-- El rando 199.119.233.171 18:48, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

does the ancient thing count as a ore for netherite?

Ancient debris does count as an ore, but for Netherite scraps. -98.230.115.82 23:47, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

its not on the page and its feel like a necessity to add this

Would gilded blackstone count as an ore? —98.230.115.82 21:35, 16 May 2020 (UTC)

Yes this should probably be added - its basically gold but inside blackstone instead of stone or netherrack youtube :P (talk) 16:10, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

The sentence "The highest layers that gold, redstone, diamond, and lapis lazuli ore can be found on are two layers lower" in the "Availability" section of the article is confusing in its context. This sentence cites an image showing an alleged change to 1.8 in ore distribution; can anyone confirm that what it says is true? If so, then this should be mentioned in the "History" section. --Fluffy8x (talk) 16:36, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

Given that amethyst AND gilded blackstone are explicitly not included due to not being ores, I feel like ancient debris probably doesn't fit here either, especially since the method of obtaining its ingot is so different from all of the other ores. Beyond that, every other ore on this page is actually titled as such.

Athesiel (talk) 20:28, 24 February 2021 (UTC) bl

On the article for 20w06a, when Ancient Debris was added, it says

> This snapshot contains new biomes, blocks, and a fancy new ore called "ancient debris".

Cory Scheviak stated in a comment on a bug report that glided blackstone is not an ore because it cannot be smelted, which is also the reason why amethyst are not considered ore. – Unavailablehoax (talk) 20:38, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Emerald ore can spawn anywhere in a chunk with a mountain biome in it, even if the are of the chunk it generates in is not in the mountains. I found a spawn like this randomly mining, the seed is -3517766418581675179 and the location is -496 29 47. Ardsamurai (talk) 17:38, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

I don’t know how to change it, but the non-Deepslate ore sprites are outdated, showing the pre-1.17 textures. – Unsigned comment added by Minceraftiscool (talk • contribs) at 08:00, 12 June 2021 (UTC). Sign comments with ~~~~

Same with the raw ore items and blocks. — Lumincand 11:04, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

Geodes essentially function similar to a giant ore, providing the player with Amethyst Shards, which act like any other mined mineral. They can be crafted into things albeit very limited at the moment.

The Amethyst Cluster essentially acts like the Amethyst Ore, as that is what the player breaks to obtain the Shards which are used for crafting into other things. However, although the Amethyst Clusters grow out of Budding Amethyst, they themselves don't drop Amethyst when broken. Therefore, I am wondering if this page should consider Geodes as a whole, or Amethyst Clusters?

I just feel Amethyst should be included here, as it is a mined mineral that essentially forms within a giant ore structure.

Amethyst has some fundamental differences from ores. 1) It does not generate as blobs underground, but in a dedicated generated structure (geode), which no ores do. 2) They regenerate over time, however all ores are non-renewable. That is also why gilded blackstone is not considered an ore - although it is not renewable, it does not generate in blobs. By the way, you should always sign your paragraph with four tildes (~). This Windwend (talk) thing at the end is generated by that. Windwend (talk) 16:39, 26 July 2021 (UTC)

Absolutely not. It is NOT an ore, was never an ore, was never considered an ore, and will never be an ore. It does not function like an ore, generate like an ore, smelt like an ore, or be obtained like an ore. Humiebee^{talk contribs} 20:04, 4 September 2021 (UTC)

👁 Image
 Oppose this idea per comments above. Also, the reason is that an "Ore" block is a block that generates at blobs, is a variation of a stone (the exception is ancient debris, but it is still a ore because its properties and generation processes) and is smeltable. Supeika (talk) 23:42, 4 September 2021 (UTC)

👁 Image
 Oppose. This proposal likely originated from this diff, in which I reverted Windwend's addition to Block of Redstone#Trivia with the reasoning that redstone blocks aren't unique in having different mining tool requirements for the block and the source material, and I used amethyst as an example. I appreciate Windwend bringing this up in a discussion. Thinking about it some more, I realize that real-world ores are substances that contain valuable minerals (like metals and coal) rather than being composed of the same mineral in different form (e.g. shards). Therefore, I now believe it makes sense to exclude amethyst from the category of ores. Yes, it is a mineral, but not technically an ore. Amatulic (talk) 16:02, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

I tried editing the table but struggled so I'll put it here. ore distribution is different in the desert because y levels that are 50+ are almost completely replaced with sandstone and sand, which seems to block out a lot of the stone, and by extension the ores. below 50 coal is quite abundant, making the ideal depth for coal in a desert to be a far lower depth of 48. Lyciathelycanroc (talk) 12:08, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

My proposal is to rework the table in Ore § Distribution:

• remove footnotes that just don't fit in a table;
• make the images smaller;
• swap the copper and lapis to make the table cleaner;
• replace uncommon with rare;
• remove values for badlands bc that just complicates the table;
• move some of the mineral blocks up, since their resource is not smelted (and I renamed their row to smelted resource block)
  • diamond blocks and other blocks are technically the raw resource blocks

Mineral	Coal	Lapis Lazuli	Copper	Iron	Gold	Redstone	Diamond	Emerald
Stone ore	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image
Deepslate ore	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image
Raw resource	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image
Raw resource block	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image
Smelted resource	–	–	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	–	–	–
Smelted resource block	–	–	👁 Image	👁 Image	👁 Image	–	–	–
Minimum pickaxe tier required	👁 Image Wooden	👁 Image Stone		👁 Image Iron
Found in biome	Any		Any + more abundant in Dripstone Caves​[a]	Any	Any + more frequent in Badlands	Any		👁 Image Mountains 👁 Image Windswept Hills
Abundance	Very common	Rare	Common	Common	Common	Rare	Very rare	Rare
Total range	0 to 320	-64 to 64	-16 to 112	-64 to 320	-64 to 32	-64 to 16		-16 to 320
Most found in layers[b]	45	-2	43	14	-18	-59		85
None at layers	-64 to -1	65 to 320	-64 to -17 and 113 to 320	73 to 79	33 to 320	15 to 320	16 to 320	-64 to -17

--Simanelix ^(T|C) 00:05, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

The way your table is set up implies copper only generates in dripstone caves and gold only generates in badlands. That information shouldn't be removed.--Capopanzo (talk | contribs) 00:18, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

👁 Image
 Done --Simanelix ^(T|C) 00:30, 10 May 2024 (UTC)

On this page, there used to be an interactive graph, if I recall correctly. I've had this page saved for the graph, but it seems to have disappeared, and I cannot seem to find it elsewhere on the wiki. This may very well be my own fault or incompetency, but I would appreciate it a lot if someone could advice me on the state of this graph and where it could be found. Thanks in advance.

Note: I don't use wiki talk functions usually, so I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask. DaBaldEagul (talk) 12:22, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

Huh. It's not just you. All the interactive graphs on the specific ore pages are gone, too. Well, last I saw them, they said "for Java edition 1.20.4". Maybe they're being updated. So yeah, where are they? -~- Nerdyguy2000   talk   edits 17:15, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

The generation is the same. BDJP ^(t|c) 00:33, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

For the graph showing the distribution, you can select it for each individual ore. As for the chart made by Mojang, it is already out of date. BDJP ^(t|c) 00:28, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

It is an ore. BDJP ^(t|c) 00:26, 15 September 2025 (UTC)

The current ore definiton is a block that generates in blobs underground and can be smelted. Clay fits this bill, but is obviously not an ore. Now you mighe be like "oh, but it only spawns in a specific biome so it doesn't count" but emerald ore also only generates in specific biomes. So something needs to change to clairify that clay is not an ore. CrockCraftMC (talk) 22:25, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

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