Quick answer

Bring a stone pickaxe, search exposed mountains or explore around Y=16, then smelt raw iron in a furnace.

Make a stone pickaxe before searching for iron. A wooden pickaxe can break iron ore, but it won't give you the normal drop. Mine the ore with your stone pickaxe, bring the raw iron home and smelt it into ingots.

The height advice below applies to international Java and Bedrock terrain generated in 1.18 or later. Older chunks, mods and custom worlds can differ.

Choose a safe place to look

What you can reach First route
An accessible mountain Look for exposed iron in the mountainside; don't climb a dangerous cliff for a few blocks.
Mostly flat land Dig a staircase from a safe entrance and explore around Y=16.
A deep cave opening Mark it and return when you have lighting, food and equipment.

Y=16 is a useful underground area to explore, not a guarantee of ore. Iron also generates high in mountains, but the height only helps where actual mountain blocks exist.

Make a short mining trip

  1. Take a stone pickaxe, torches, food and blocks for making a path. Leave valuables at your base. To make a stone pickaxe, use a wooden pickaxe to collect three cobblestone, then combine those with two sticks at a crafting table.
  2. Mark the entrance or write down its coordinates. Java on a computer normally shows coordinates with F3. In Bedrock, enable coordinates in world settings; on a server the available setting depends on its rules.
  3. Dig a staircase down so you can walk back. Stop at cave edges to check for drops and enemies before lighting the route. Don't dig straight down beneath your feet.
  4. Mine iron with the stone pickaxe. Watch for empty space behind ore and avoid standing beneath gravel that could fall.
  5. For an initial trip, aim for six raw iron: once smelted, that covers an iron pickaxe and a bucket at three ingots each. It's a practical starting goal, not a required upgrade order.

Turn raw iron into ingots

Open an ordinary furnace. Put raw iron in the top input slot and a suitable fuel such as coal or charcoal in the lower slot. Once smelting finishes, collect the ingots from the output. Each raw iron produces one iron ingot. A blast furnace can also smelt iron materials, but you don't need one for your first batch.

If a Silk Touch tool gave you an iron ore block instead, that block can also be smelted. A block of raw iron must first be broken down into raw iron items; it isn't the same thing as an iron ingot.

Nothing dropped, or the furnace won't start?

  • The ore broke without raw iron: check that you used at least a stone pickaxe, then look for the drop in nearby openings.
  • No smelting progress: check that the input is raw iron or smeltable ore and the lower slot contains suitable fuel.
  • An old mining level isn't working: check both your game version and when the terrain you are exploring was generated.

Once the first ingots are ready, craft a pickaxe and bucket, store the rest, and plan a deeper trip from your base.

Sources

Iron ore · Raw iron · Furnace

Sources

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