User:Zrowny/OreIngotBlock/Coal

Coal is a mineral that is a common sight on almost all maps.

[edit] Coal Ore

Coal Ore

Type	Solid Block
Requirements	None
Physics	No
Transparency	No
Luminance	No
Blast Resistance	?
Tool
Renewable	?
Stackable	N/A
Data value	dec: 16 hex: 10

Coal Ore is found at any elevation, inside caverns, cliff faces, and underground. A lump of coal can be mined directly from Coal ore using a wooden pickaxe or better (that is to say, it is not an ore block so much as it's a vein). Coal lumps can be combined with sticks to make torches, or used as fuel in a furnace or Minecart. When burned in a furnace, it provides 8 uses for each coal "lump".

In Survival mode, it gives the player 1 to 4 step blocks. It can be placed by players in Creative mode (as of 0.28).

Currently in Minecraft Beta, mining coal yields one lump of coal. Coal ore blocks are very common to find and are the only ore to appear well above sea level; coal ore comprises about 1% of all rock, regardless of altitude. Common deposits can vary greatly in size - mountaintop deposits are typically limited to five at most, but underground ones can be anywhere between ten and fifty without being noted as unusually large.

[edit] Coal Lump

Coal Lump

Type	Raw Materials
Durability	N/A
Renewable	?
Stackable	Yes (64)
Data value	dec: 263 hex: 107

Coal lumps are harvested directly from coal ore blocks, which must be destroyed using any level of pickaxe. After this, they cannot be reverted back into block form.

They are quite efficient as a source of fuel for Furnaces, being able to smelt eight units of ore per lump of coal (hence eight lumps will smelt a full stack of 64 ore units). Coal lumps and Charcoal are also the only fuels accepted by Powered Minecarts (providing approximately four minutes of transit each), although, again, Minecart boosters may be a better fast-transit choice in the long run.

The only purpose for which coal could be considered required is the creation of torches, which are essential for prolonged underground exploration - although there are other permanent light sources, none come close in terms of convenience and availability (carrying 64 lumps of coal allows you to craft up to 256 torches (assuming you have at least eight Logs with you), and odds are you will be harvesting yet more coal as you dig). Perhaps the best alternative to coal-based lighting would be Netherrack, which, if manually ignited, will burn forever.

Coal is no longer as necessary to in-game survival, as Charcoal can be used as a cheap, renewable alternative.

Torches can be crafted from a lump of coal and a Stick. They come in stacks of four.

[edit] Trivia

• In the first version of the game, when destroyed without any items coal ore drops a single coal, and three when mined with a pickaxe.

Large coal deposits are not uncommon.

Coal can occasionally be found on a mountaintop.

A vein of coal that was exposed to show its size.