How to Find Iron in Minecraft: The Two Best Y Levels

Iron ore is most common at Y 16 underground and again high up in mountains, peaking around Y 232. You’ll also find it scattered at a lower rate through almost all of the stone below Y 72, so any cave you explore will have some. Mine it with a stone pickaxe or better, and smelt the raw iron it drops into ingots.

The two peaks

Iron uses three generation layers since 1.18:

• The main underground band. From about Y -24 to Y 56, most common at Y 16. This is where a branch mine pays off best.
• The mountain band. From Y 80 up to the top of the world, most common at Y 232. Only tall mountain peaks reach this high, but if your world has them, iron is easy to spot on exposed cliff faces.
• A thin scattering everywhere. Small amounts generate from the bottom of the world up to Y 72.

Early in a world, the easy option is to explore caves around Y 0 to Y 30 and mine every orange-speckled block you see. A big cave system usually gives you enough for armor and a bucket in one trip.

Ore veins

Deeper down, from about Y -8 to Y -60, the game sometimes generates huge iron veins: long ribbons of tuff mixed with iron ore and the occasional block of raw iron. If you see a lot of tuff in one place, follow it. One vein can give you several stacks of raw iron, more than an hour of normal mining.

(Copper gets the same treatment above Y 0, in veins of granite.)

Mining and smelting

• Stone, iron, diamond or netherite pickaxes all work. Wood doesn’t.
• Each ore gives 1 raw iron. Fortune increases that, averaging about 2.2 with Fortune III.
• Smelt raw iron in a furnace or blast furnace. The blast furnace is twice as fast but only smelts ores and metal items.
• Store spare raw iron as blocks of raw iron (9 raw iron each) to save chest space.

How much do you need?

More than you’d think. A full set of iron armor is 24 ingots. A bucket is 3, a shield 1, a hopper 5, an anvil 31, and a single rail recipe takes 6. Once you start on redstone and storage systems, iron goes fast.

At that point, stop mining and build an iron farm. It takes some villagers and an afternoon, and then iron arrives on its own.

Next step: diamonds

Your first iron pickaxe is the key to everything deeper: diamonds, gold and redstone all need it. Head down to Y -59 and follow how to find diamonds. For a full breakdown of every ore and mining technique, see the mining guide.