Tutorial:Mining Strategies


 * This tutorial starts of the with the Mining 101 section describing ores to mine, tools to use and the gist of some strategies. The next section describes an efficient and reliable mine setup at level 11, before the tutorial ends with some general tricks related to mining.

Ores to Mine
The following table will present the various ores found in Minecraft Pocket Edition, and some characteristics properties related to them. All ores are found in the Overworld, with the exception of Nether Quarts which are found in the Nether.

The columns in the table are mostly self explanatory, but note the following:
 * The F stands for the Fortune level of the pickaxe. The looting level increases in most cases the drop count.
 * The pickaxe type listed is the minimum required to get the ore. If less, the blocks usually break leaving nothing at all. If the Silk Touch enchantment has been used, the ore itself is dropped.
 * In the Item column, either the actual item dropped when mining is listed, or the corresponding ingot which is produced when smelting the ore.

Some more notes related to this table:
 * Note that two ores can be related to a Biome. The Gold Ore which can be found a most elevations within the Mesa Biome, and the Emerald Ore which can only be found naturally in the Extreme Hills biome (or very close to this biome)
 * All ores can be smelted, but will then only generate one item. In other words, it is not wise to smelt for example Diamond Ore, as mining it with an Fortune produces more items.
 * In addition to all the Ores listed in table, you'll also mine loads of Cobblestone, Andesite, Granite and Diorite. All these variants of Stones can be mined with any Pickaxe.

Various mining strategies
These are the main strategies to locate and mine ores:


 * Exploring Caves – When exploring Caves, ores will often be exposed in the wall. Depending on the depth of the cave, various ores might be exposed. This is often an easy way to get Coal and Iron. It does however require some navigational aids, to avoid getting lost.
 * Quarry mining – In quarry mining, the Player excavates a large quarry or pit, mining out a really big hole in the ground. Usually this is not advisable, as it mostly generates a lot of stone blocks and not a lot of ores. In addition, if done starting at the surface level most of the valuable ores are scarce or none-existent.
 * TNT Mining – Use TNT to blast an area, and pick up the ores afterwards. There has been made contraptions to automate TNT mining, but since the drop count of ores are reduced when being blown up, using TNT for mining is not very efficient. It can however, be fun to watch.
 * Abandoned mineshafts – The Abandoned Mineshafts are also a good way to locate ores, as the shafts exposes a lot of ores. In addition there are usually some Monster Spawners in or nearby the mineshaft. The downside is that they are a bit hard to find, and it is easy to get lost if you don't have a good method to mark where you've been or not.
 * Branch mining – Instead of mining each and every block, this method relies on making shafts and tunnels in various patterns, to reduce the amount of stone mined whilst still exposing sufficient amount of ores. Branch mining can be done in a multitude of alternatives: Vertical branches, spiral branches, horizontal branches, windmill shaped branches, Staircase branches, pinwheel or windmill branches, and so on...

In the following we're going to focus on a relatively simple scheme of having an access shaft down to a given level, a main access shaft and side branches from this access shaft.

Tools to use
When mining you'll need more than just pickaxes, and you should carry along some other items as well. Which pickaxes you choose to use is based on personal preferences, but here are some general guidelines related to the items, various pickaxes, and useful Enchantments:


 * The trusthworty Stone Pickaxe – This is easy to craft, is not the fastest nor the most durable, but you can always craft another one if needed. Usable for general mining of stone, Coal and Iron. Do _not_ use it for higher level ores, as the ores will be lost.
 * The work horse of the Iron Pickaxe – This a versatile Pickaxe, reasonable fast and long lasting. At lower levels of Experience, but still high enough to Enchant, enchanting an Iron Pickaxe can be worthwhile. The Iron Pickaxe can mine all ores, except for Obsidian.
 * The shiny Diamond Pickaxe – The fastest, and most durable Pickaxe. However, it does require access to diamonds for renewal or mending. Some users only uses Diamond Pickaxes, and some reserve these for the higher level ores.
 * Some useful enchantements related to mining:
 * Fortune-I to Fortune-III – These increases the drop when mining the ores, as described in the table above. Really useful on an Iron or Diamond Pickaxe.
 * Efficiency-I to Efficiency-IV – Increases the mining speed.
 * Unbreaking-I to Unbreaking-III – Increases the durability of the Pickaxe, by reducing the chance of the pickaxe breaking.
 * Silk Touch-I – With this enchantment, you mine the ore itself. This can be useful to mine the ores, and then go back to your base and mine with your ultimate Pickaxe. Silk Touch is also useful for getting various other blocks. Note that combining Silk Touch and Fortune is a waste of enchantments. Only one of those is applied. Due to this most players have two really good pickaxes, one with Silk Touch and one with Fortune. Both having a decent Efficiency and Unbreaking enchantment.
 * A stack of Torches – Do carry with you Torches at all times, so that you can light up the mine, and keep those Mobs away.
 * A stack of blocks – We recommend carrying some spare blocks, like Dirt or Gravel in your hotbar, as if/when you encounter Lava (or Water) you can easily block the stream of. In addition these can be used for bridge building, sealing of passages. Using Dirt or Gravel for this purpose make it easy to remove the blocks again, if so needed.
 * Food for the hungry – You should at anytime have Food readily available, so that you can replenish your hunger.
 * Wooden Planks and/or Sticks – Especially if you use Stone Pickaxes, then having some Wooden Planks and/or Sticks is useful to craft new tools. You'll also need a crafting table (but that can be made out of the Wooden planks). You usually don't need to bring Coal, as you mine that when you go along. Carrying these resources along also allows you to craft Chests or Furnaces or more Torches, if needed.
 * Optional: Water Bucket – If you mine in an environment where Lava might occur, it's advisable to have a Water Bucket in your hotbar, so that you can easily save yourself from being burned by the Lava. It can also be used, with careful timing, to decent from high altitude to lower altitudes.

Level 11 mining
When looking at the table above, it's easily seen that lower levels give more resources. Combining this with the fact that at level 11 the lava pools are forming, makes mining at level 11 a good choice. It is low enough that all ores are available, and you seldomly run into lava _flowing_ into your tunnels. You might come across the occasional Lava pool at your feet, but they are easily avoided and be bridged either with Gravel or Cobblestone.

Therefore we're going to describe how to setup a mine at this level, and a reasonable effective mine structure allowing for easy and safe gathering of resources.

Basic structures
The structure we need for this mine is an access shaft to get down to level 11, a base area at that level. This is extended with a main access shaft, where we dig side tunnels out from to do the actual mining.

Vertical Access Shaft
You have multiple options for building the access shaft, with the two main options being a staircase going all the way down to level 11. Or to build a vertical access shaft downwards. We're going to describe the safest way of doing the latter option.

It's sound and good advice in general to never dig straight down, but that is what we're going to do here. To make it safe make sure that the Player is standing in the middle between two blocks. Test out that you're standing safe, by digging down on you lefthand side. If you fall down, you're not standing correctly.

Dig as far as you're able to reach on your lefthand side, which is 6 blocks down. Place a torch on the side of the wall. Now that you see that there is a block down at the bottom, start digging at your righthand side. You'll fall down as you dig, but you'll never fall below the lefthand safety block.

When level with the lefthand block, stop and places ladders on either wall on the righthand side to be able to get back up again. Repeat this process until you are at the desired level 11.

If you encounter caves when digging downwards, try filling the hole with gravel, before you continue digging downwards. If it's actually a cave, dig down (possibly using the gravel stack you let down into the hole) to the cave level, and build walls surrounding your shaft back up again. An alternative to using falling Gravel (or Sand)) to fill the hole, you can also place Water on the side of your existing shaft, and float down to the level of the Cave.

If you don't have any coordinates to indicate when you're at level 11, you'll eventually hit bedrock. Dig around a little to find the lowest bedrock available, and count your way back up to level 11. When you _think_ you're at level 11, you can either dig a tunnel in a random direction to find a Lava pool and verify your height, or you could start out with the other structures, and dig a few side tunnels and possibly discover that you need to shift your structures a level up or down.

Now you should have 2x1 shaft with ladders on one side, and torches on the other side. If you have a Bucket of Water (or two) I would strongly suggest to make a little pool at the end of the shaft. This allows for you to drop very fast on the torch side of the access shaft, whilst still being able to climb safely back up on the ladder side.

Underground base layer
When you've located level 11 dig out a decent area around your access shaft. For starters dig out an area of at least 10x10x3 blocks. Put down lights to keep Mobs from spawning, and setup an underground base.

This base should hold some chests for storage, crafting table, one or more Furnace(s), and so on. Use this area to leave valuables before you go mining, and leave unwanted stuff when returning. You could also use this for smelting items in between mining runs.

Main access tunnel
On one side of the underground base, start building the Main Access tunnel. I recommend at least building a 2x3 tunnel extending to either side. If you're into designing you could make this wider/higher and decorate as you please.

But make it wider to make access to the side tunnels easy and fast. If you plan on extending your main access with either minecarts or hopper lines, make it bigger than the suggested 2x3 cross area.

Side tunnels
From the main access tunnel which should always extend beyond the current number of side tunnels, dig holes of 1x2 to mark the side tunnel openings. For starters mark out a few dozen tunnels, at every third block down the main access tunnel.

Mark the side tunnels every third block is the most efficient distance to uncover between 80-90 % of the ores at this level. This is due to Ores being in Mineral Veins which usually cover _at least_ a 2x2x2 area. With side tunnels every 3rd block, you'll either dig into or uncover all these Mineral Veins.

Now you're almost ready to start mining fulltime. You need to make a final decision, and that is how long you'll want the side tunnels to be, roughly. To avoid doubling back on your own tracks, we would suggest doing side tunnels long enough so that when you decide it's enough, you can dig three blocks over and dig the next side tunnel on your way back to the main access tunnel.

If using Stone Pickaxes as you main digging tool, we're suggesting to dig a side tunnel of one or two Stone Pickaxes worth. That is, to dig two side tunnels you'll require 4 Pickaxes. 2 going into the side tunnel, and 2 more to get back to the Main Access tunnel.

How to use the mine
The general idea on mining now is to select a side tunnel, and dig it in a straight line until you'll want to go back again. If you stand still and dig the entire reach of your Pickaxe, you need to place torches every other reach of your pickaxes. This will place torches every 12 blocks, which is close to the minimum required to keep your tunnels Mob free.

When digging ordinary Stone Blocks, you can use your Stone (or Iron) Pickaxe. When encountering Coal or Iron, these can be dug with the same Pickaxe. For Redstone, Lapis Lazuli and Diamond, you should shift to one of your Enchanted Pickaxes. For Gold, you also need to use at least an Iron Pickaxe.

When discovering Diamond, we strongly recommend digging out all the blocks around the Diamond Vein. This it uncover any potential Lava blocks. When all surrounding blocks have been removed, either use your Silk Touch Pickaxe to mine the ore for later extraction of Diamonds, or your Fortune Pickaxe to extract the Diamonds.

When you discover Gravel and/or Dirt, you could use a Shovel, but an almost equivalent readily available option is to use the torches which are already in your hotbar. This will give you the Gravel/Dirt, and allows you to easily place the torches as you go along.

After removing the Ores in the Mineral Vein you just uncovered, we suggest placing a few extra torches and block of the area so that you only have the side tunnel with walls when finished. If it's a large Mineral Vein, you'll rediscover the torches when digging the neighboring side tunnel, but you'll then know this is somewhere you've been before.

If encountering a Lava pool, you could often place blocks in the lava across the lake, or you could place multiple Gravel blocks in the roof, which would fall down and eventually surface making a foot path across the Lava pool. The least desirable option, is to sneak forward and place blocks on the front side of the block you're standing on. This latter option should be carried out with great caution.

Finally, when coming to your desired end of the side tunnel turn right (or left) and dig at least 6-10 blocks in front of you. Go back to the side tunnel you came from, and count the 2 blocks before turning right (or left) again, and dig the side tunnel next to your existing tunnel. The reason for doing the extra blocks is that when you dig your 3rd (or n'th) side tunnel, you'll escape into this to see that you've reached your desired length, and can use that as marker for turning back again.

Multiplayer additions
If you're doing this mine setup on a realm, or a multiplayer world, there are few additions we would suggest to do. Firstly extend the underground base to accommodate for personal storage, and maybe put down an Ender Chest somewhere in the vicinity. Also place a chest (marked with signs or similar) for community stuff. For example, not everyone is to keen on storing Stone or Gravel, but some might, so have some community storage chests.

A simple way to have multiple accessing the side tunnels, is to add a sign at the entrance of the side tunnel with the Players gamertag (aka IGN). This indicates that this side tunnel has been started/completed by that Player, and that you should find another side tunnel to mine. Depending on common rules, the Ores you mine are either personal property or community property. Respect those rules.

In a multiplayer world, it is also common to decorate the underground base layer a little more than most single-player worlds tend to do, so allow for some space to both decorate the underground base area and possibly the main access tunnels.

Cave mining
Both in the Overworld when exploring, or sometimes when mining you'll encounter Caves and it's wise to have a way of making your way around the cave and being able to escape from the Cave safely.

We're recommending to make a trail of torches to help you find your way out of the Cave, when you desire to do so. The way this works is that on your way into the Cave you _always_ place torches on the wall on the lefthand side. When you're ready to leave, you'll keep on moving with the torches on your righthand side. (If within a side tunnel, put down some extra torches near the side tunnel entrance)

When encountering a crossway (or a splitting of the cave tunnels) or a cave side tunnel, decide which to choose and place a torch on the floor in the center of the other tunnel(s) to indicate that it is _not_ explored. Go explore the side tunnel.

If the side tunnel comes back to the main tunnel, we're suggesting to seal it off using Cobblestone (possibly with a single block hole with a torch in it) to mark that this has already been explored/mined. Now go back to the main tunnel again, and keep exploring.

A final touch is that when you get back to the main tunnel, you could optionally dig a hole in the start of the side tunnel, and place a torch in that hole to mark that this particular side tunnel has been explored and you're done with it.

We're suggesting to do the exploration of a decent amount of the cave first, and then mine it afterwards. The reason for this is simple to avoid being ambushed by Mobs. If you explore, and place torches whilst running along the Mobs won't spawn, and when you return (for example in a side tunnel) you can safely mine the ores you want.

Mining Obsidian
Either when being in a cave, or down at your lvl 11 mine, you'll come across either Lava or Obsidian which you'll occasionally want to mine. However mining near Lava could be dangerous. So here are a few pointer on doing this safely.

Firstly light the area, as when you remove the Lava later on, it'll get dark. And since you're mining near Lava you really don't want a Mob to come and surprise you and push you or make you run into the Lava.

Secondly, if you place a Water Bucket wisely just above or on the side of the Lava it'll turn the Lava into Obsidian, and with careful placement you can make the Water flow towards you. Take care that the Water doesn't flow toward the Lava. This way you can stand in the Water, and mine the Obsidian safely. If there is Lava underneath, the Water will turn it into Obsidian before destroying the newly mined block or you get any damage.

Make a mental note on which block you placed the Water on, so that you can pick it up again when finished mining, or you want to move the Water flow.

(Also note that with access to The End the End Crystal towers are also made out of Obsidian, and can be mined if you're capable of dealing with the Enderman crowding the place.)

Automated Furnace setup
Slightly unrelated to actual mining, but very useful at the underground base is an automated furnace setup. An example of a simple automated furnace setup is shown in the picture under the Underground base layer.

At the bottom layer a Chest and a Hopper leading into the Chest. At the next layer sneak and place a Furnace on top of the bottom Hopper, and then a Hopper leading into the Furnace. At the top layer place a Crafting table on top of the middle Hopper, and a Hopper leading into the Furnace.

Make sure the middle Hopper has sufficient with Coal, and whenever you pass by the top Hopper with Iron ore or Gold Ore (or even Cobblestone if you want Stone), and it'll smelt them all in due turn and feed into the chest at the bottom. > Stuff to do below here
 * Add some pictures:
 * Inventory of tools to use?
 * Digging the vertical access shaft?
 * Base of vertical access shaft?
 * Something related to breadcrumb trails?

Mining in the Nether
When you are in the Nether, it's not that common to actually have various mines setup with side tunnels and such, and you can't use Water to avoid Lava.

However, you can still keep a stack of Netherrack in your hotbar, and when encountering LLava you step backwards, and place down a block in front of you. This will stop the Lava from flowing, and you can approach the stopper block and put a block into the Lava source block. Usually it's only a single Lava source block when mining within Netherrack.

The most useful Ore in the Nether is of course the Nether Quartz Ore from which you can get Nether Quartz. Mining this is useful for experience, and for getting resources either for decorative buildings or crafting redstone components.

Another useful "Ore" in the Nether is Glowstone often found in under Netherrack in Glowstone Clusters. Glowstone is a valuable light source, and Glowstone Dust] can be used in Brewing. Take care when mining Glowstone that it doesn't fall into Lava below the Glowstone Cluster.

A final tip related to digging tunnels in the Nether, and that is if you want to build a long tunnel somewhere in the Nether, it's advisable to do this at level 121 which is 2 blocks below the lowest bedrock at the top of the Nether. At this height there is almost only Netherrack to mine through, and you won't need to go out in the dangerous open areas. This is very useful when in need of a long tunnel between two Nether Portals. If you want to decorate the tunnel mine a few level down, but then you'll need to make a new floor every now and then.