Raw Iron in Minecraft: Everything players need to know

Raw iron is a new material that is expected to be part of the Minecraft Caves and Cliffs update.

Instead of iron ore dropping itself when mined, it will now drop raw iron. This same concept will also apply to deepslate iron ore.

Players can take raw iron and smelt it into iron ingots. Smelting can be done in a furnace or a blast furnace with any type of fuel.

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Raw Iron in Minecraft

Iron ore can be expected to behave similarly to other ore blocks that do not drop themselves (Image via Mojang)

Raw iron in Minecraft is the new iron ore drop in the Caves and Cliffs update. The update is expected to be available to both Bedrock and Java edition players this summer.

Iron ore can be expected to behave similarly to other ore blocks that do not drop themselves. Players can soon use enchantments such as silk touch or all levels of fortune with this ore.

Silk touch will allow players to collect iron ore by making it drop itself at despawn instead of the raw iron material. Fortune, on the other hand, is a mining enchantment that is meant to be used on ore that drops materials other than themselves. This enchantment can increase the amount of material that this type of ore may drop at despawn.

Iron ore will still be considered a common ore in Minecraft. The upcoming update will not change the ore strength or mining requirements. The only thing that will change is what is dropped at despawn.

Raw iron may also be found in the new deepslate iron ore. Deepslate iron ore is a new variant of iron ore in Minecraft that is expected to be part of the Caves and Cliffs update. This ore can be found in the deepslate layers of Minecraft. Meanwhile, regular iron ore will still be a common find across the Minecraft world.

Deepslate layers include anything below zero on the Y-axis. Any iron above zero on the Y-axis is going to be the regular iron ore.