What is the best way to mine ores in Minecraft?

Minecraft is filled with different things to do, with mining and crafting being two of the most important things that players can do. Mining is one of the best ways to get large numbers of resources and crafting is how players turn these resources into useful items.

Since mining is so important to survival players, knowing the best way to get as many resources with as little effort as possible is integral to their success. Detailed below are the best methods for mining, as well as the different altitudes that each overworld ore can be found at.

Locations of Minecraft’s overworld ores and best mining methods

Best Mining Strategy

An example of the layout of an easy strip mine (Image via Minecraft)

There is a lot of contention and discussion around what the best way to mine is. While there are some deep strategies, these methods can be quite complex and hard to memorize.

For this reason, the best method, in terms of simplicity, is digging a tunnel at whatever y level has the most of the ore the player is looking for.

From this central tunnel, players should dig out feeler tunnels every three blocks. This will give each tunnel an overview of the blocks to the left, right, above and below, without any overlap in the blocks seen.

Coal

Coal is a very important resource in the game. Coal used to be abundant at all elevations, but the terrain generation changes and ore distribution changes that came along with the Caves and Cliffs updates made coal much more rare.

Coal can technically be found at all elevations above y = -1, however it is incredibly rare at these depths. Coal is most common at altitudes between y = 95 and y = 136, meaning that it is most effective to mine mountains to get coal.

Iron

Iron is probably the most important resource available to players in Minecraft. Players need iron to craft things that go towards making automated farms, storage systems, and defending themselves by creating hoppers, armor, and shields.

Iron can be found in the depths of the overworld and at the tops of mountains. The specific ranges for iron are as follows:

When above y = 80, iron is most common at y = 232
When below y = 72, iron is most common at y =15.

This range includes the negative y elevation of the world, where players can find almost all of the game’s rare resources.

Copper

Coppers is a metal with only a few different uses in the game, which include lightning rods and spyglasses. Coppers can be round between y = -16 and y = 112. However it is most commonly found at y = 48.

While copper is most common at y = 48, it is also more common within lush cave biomes. This means that lush caves at y = 48 will yield the most copper for players.

Gold

Gold is another rare metal with only a few different uses in powered rails, golden apples, carrots, and bartering with piglins.

While gold can be found at all levels below y = 32, it is most common at y = -16. If the player is within the badlands biome, gold will generate at all levels above y = 32, meaning that badlands can spawn gold at all elevations.

Lapis Lazuli

Lapis Lazuli is a vital resource for a single, important reason: lapis is the fuel needed to power enchanting tables and apply enchantments to tools, weapons, and armor.

These enchantments hold some of Minecraft’s most powerful effects, including mending, fortune, and silk touch. These enchantments allow items to repair with XP, ores and items to drop more than they normally would, and drop blocks that would normally break, respectively.

Lapis lazuli can be found at all levels below y = 64 and is most common at y = 0.

Emerald

Emerald is an interesting ore due to how rare it is. While it is not technically the rarest ore in terms of the probability to generate, its rarity lies in the fact that the ore only generates within mountain biomes.

Within these mountain biomes, emerald ore can be found at any level above y = -16 and it is most common at y = 236. Due to how rare the ore is, most players get a large majority of their emeralds through villager trading rather than mining.

Diamond

Diamonds are by far the best resource that players can get in the overworld. The tools, armor, and weapons that players can make with diamond are the best that can be made without entering the nether for ancient debris.

Diamond is found at all elevations below y = 16 and is most commonly found at y = -59. This is just above the new bedrock floor for the world which is found between y = -64 and y = -61 or so.

Redstone

Redstone is vital for many of the game’s automated ssystems and is used for crafting engineering components such as comparators, repeaters, redstone torches, observers, and dispensers. Redstone can be found at all levels below y = 16 and is most common at y = -59.

This mining level is extremely convenient for players as it is a shared level with diamonds. Players can get both resources in large quantities quite easily and in one go.

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