Ore vein

Ore vein

Biomes	Any
Consists of	Deepslate Iron Ore Block of Raw Iron Tuff or Copper Ore Block of Raw Copper Granite

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An ore vein is a rare underground terrain feature that provides massive amounts of ore.

Structure

Ore veins occur as large branching networks of a filler rock, paired with high concentrations of an associated ore type. Copper veins generate between Y=0 and Y=50 and contain copper ore and raw copper, with granite as the filler material. Iron veins generate below Y=-8 and can reach as deep as Y=-60, and contain iron ore and raw iron, with tuff as the filler material.

Ore veins generate similarly to spaghetti caves and share their shape and scale. They snake and branch, forming large networks and eventually reaching dead ends. Where they intersect caves, the player can easily spot them in the floors, walls, and ceilings. The size of a single vein is virtually unlimited; in some cases, more than 2,000 of a particular ore can be found in a single vein.

Ore veins are a part of cave generation and are not decorators. This means they are overridden by caves, mineshafts or other underground structures. This also means they can generate in The Void biome.

The tuff or granite around an ore vein can be replaced by gravel, but the main mineral blocks (iron ore and copper ore) remain. So there can be ore blocks completely surrounded by gravel.

Generation

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Ore veins generate the same way as noise caves, in particular spaghetti caves. They are thickest between Y=20 and Y=30 for copper veins and between Y=-40 and Y=-28 for iron veins, and taper off towards the limits of their generation at Y=0 to Y=50 and Y=-60 to Y=-8 respectively. 70% of the blocks within the vein are not changed. Of the remaining 30% between 10% and 30% is the ore material within the vein, with the rest being filler material. 98% of the non-filler blocks generate as normal ore blocks, while 2% are generated as raw ore blocks (block of raw copper and block of raw iron, respectively).

While the composition of veins is hardcoded, datapacks may change the shape and size of veins by changing the vein_toggle, vein_ridged and vein_gap density functions supplied to the noise router.

History

Development

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Ore vein" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Gallery

• 
  An exposed iron ore vein in a cave.
• 
  Copper vein with a raw copper block.
• 
  A copper vein exposed on the seabed.
• 
  Exposed copper vein.
• 
  Exposed iron vein.
• 
  Copper ore vein found exposed of surface.
• 
  An iron vein.
• 
  A copper vein.

See also

Tutorial:Mining

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