Block of the Week: Iron Ore

While iron only makes up about 0.6 percent of the world in Minecraft, it's actually almost ten times more common in the Earth's crust. In fact, iron is one of the most abundant rock-forming elements there is, found in many different kinds of ore that vary in colour from dark grey, to bright yellow, deep purple and rusty red. You can see a lovely red one just above this paragraph.

Humans first discovered the joys of iron around 1200 BC, kicking off the appropriately-named Iron Age. People messed about a bit with iron they had found in meteors a little before that, but it wasn't until the 13th century that we developed the technology to reliably build hot enough fires to melt the ores into metal. Once we did, iron was cheaper, stronger and lighter than the bronze tools it replaced, so people got pretty excited! Apart from the bronze tool salesmen, of course, who were presumably FURIOUS.

Today, iron is probably the most important metal in the world - accounting for more than 90 percent of worldwide metal production. It's one of the main raw ingredients that goes into steel, which itself has 20 times more uses than all other metals put together. You'll find it in engine blocks, pipes, fittings, cutlery, the hulls of large ships, the frames of buildings and cars, and many more places. You'll even find iron in the human body - it's why our blood is red! There's about four grams of iron inside the average adult, and it's found in lots of different kinds of food - from beans and leafy vegetables to tofu and red meat. Yum!

In Minecraft, iron is similarly versatile. It's used to make excellent mid-game tools, armour and plenty of other useful things like compasses, buckets, anvils and minecarts. It even has uses in more advanced redstone circuitry, and you can always build iron golems to defend your base.

Be careful with your iron, though! Iron ore is a non-renewable resource, meaning that it never comes back. To get more, you'll need to dig further out into the world or deeper underground. Though if all else fails and you desperately need iron in a pinch, you could try asking a zombie...