Minecraft Forums

Quote from Sol_Rokks_Teddy

I saw a video a while back that said dimonds spawn most comonly between layers 10 and 16. What i do is make 2 branch mines, one on top of the other, and space the branches 2 blocks apart. it works rathar well, i have about 80 dimonds now but i never use them haha

This is what I do as well. It takes time but I can find a lot!

I still use the branch mining method of 2 high, 1 wide shafts with two blocks between each shaft, and I usually make them about 150-200 blocks long. I usually find plenty of the regular ores. Though I will admit I haven't been finding nearly as much diamond as I used to this way. I've been finding more diamonds via cave exploration lately.

I dig a 2x1 straight down to level 12 and put ladders on one side. I then dig a 3x3 tunnel to each end of the world. I dig 1x2 tunnels 3 blocks apart going out from the main tunnel. I suggest getting a silk touch pick and/or fortune 3 pick for mining. You can silk touch the ores for saving inventory space.

While branch mining is great, as most of the above posters have mentioned, I really enjoy making quarries. I usually do a 10x10 or 20x20 plot, and try to make it look cool with wooden support beams and other realistic additions. You can make a spiral staircase all the way down (easiest), or you can make wooden "landings" at every X levels down with ladders to get to each one. While this isn't the most efficient way to get rare materials, it is a good way to get cobblestone/dirt/gravel really quickly.

Quarries serve as nice mob death pits as well!

Well, in addition to designing my buildings, walls, farms, and pastures for efficiency, I design them to look good. The same concept applies to my mines. I often make branching mines at roughly Y=50, Y=40, Y=30, Y=20, and Y=10. These mines, like my buildings and walls, consume A LOT of wood, specifically fences and wood planks, and in the same design as an abandoned mineshaft.

However, when I build a quarry, I build it with "scaffolds" on the sides -- in essence wood planks 2 planks wide, with fences connected to the upper layer, 3 blocks higher. There are also 2-3 ladders leading all the way down to the bottom. My branching mines are often splitting off of a quarry at the above Y values.

My personal mining plan which I've been using on a few worlds now is:

Dig downward in a 3x3 spiral, 4 blocks high until you hit Y=12. Go back up the spiral laying stairs for a quicker ascent. Dig out the centre of the spiral for a quick drop hole. Place water 2 blocks above the bottom supported by signs. You can now ascend at a reasonable speed and can drop down the middle into the water for a very quick descent.

Once this is done, tunnel out a little starting area. Put a furnace, crafting table and double chest here. Dig a 2x1 hole in a wall with one block below floor level and one above. Once you find lava, put lava in this hole as a convenient way to destroy unwanted blocks (like gravel, bleh).

Pick a direction. Dig 6 blocks in that direction, put a torch on the ground.

Turn left, dig 10 blocks. Put a torch at the end of this tunnel. Go back to the main tunnel and this time dig 10 blocks to the right. Torch it.

Once that's done and you've mined out any ores you find, dig another 6 blocks down your tunnel, then repeat.

It's can get a bit tedious, so go exploring caves once you've got a bit bored.

I've been strip mining at bedrock from the SE corner of the map zig zagging up to the NW corner, one path, no branches. When I hit lava I go straight through it occasionally popping up into the natural lava cave and looking for ores poking out. I usually find 3-7 packs of diamond, tons of redstone, and useless amounts of coal xD. But have literally found NO lapis. Maybe it's just my world seed.

Me? I use a staircase mine with torches every 5 blocks down and shafts on either side 20 blocks long every 10 blocks down. The shafts then have 5 block long branches on either side of them with 3 blocks between each branch. I find plenty of iron, ridiculous amounts of coal, a good amount of diamonds, and ridiculous amounts of redstone dust.

Quote from timdever

Dig shaft down from secure place in my base, to bedrock. It is big enough for a railing, minecart track and stairs to walk up. Dig 3x3 tunnel around the vertical shaft, leaving a block for the shaft everywhere except a 3x3 opening at the corner platform. Then I dig 3x3 tunnels all four directions centered on the vertical shaft, to the edge of the map. Rail in the 3x3 tunnel around the vertical shaft as well as down the 4 tunnels. That is all preparation, after that I do generic 1x2 tunnels leaving 5 spaces in between, parallel to either the north south or east west tunnels. That is all at ground block level being 10, meaning feet are at 11 and face is at 12.

I do it almost exactly the same way except three blocks higher. I like to have wood and bread with me so I can make more torches and pickaxes for regular stone. I make little rooms on the way to drop off dirt and cobblestone in chests. I leave the diamonds alone until I get a fortune III pickaxe.

I do it in different ways, depending on what I feel like doing at the time. Quite often, I will start a world by digging a staircase down to Y12 and just tunneling in one direction until I find diamonds or until I feel like turning or until I hit a ravine or cave that interests me. As I tunnel, I pour water on any lava lakes I encounter so that I can walk right over them. How many tunnels I wind up making and what directions they might go in... and where my rail lines go and how elaborate the tracks might become usually just depends on how long I keep playing in that particular world. I've never felt like I've ever even been close to running out of resources in any world I've played in or in any of the ones I'm still playing in.

I've had the most output from mines at levels 10-14. When I've mined at bedrock I have never have had as much output as a mine at y10.

I tend to prefer branch mining. Currently the mine I'm using is semi-large scale branch mine. After digging down to about 10, I make a 4x4 or 6x6 room. Then make tunnels branching out in four directions. I pick out that seems to have the most solid rock, and dig a tunnel 3 high and 2 wide. Go for exactly 100 blocks, turn, 100 and so on. Making a 100x100 square. Once that is done, I begin actual branch mining. Digging 1x3 tunnels every two blocks.( Three would be just fine too..) I don't stop for lava, I just keep a bucket handy and the tunnel straight through.

I usually go down to level 7 then dig 4 high and in a straight line for a bit, turn and dig 3 blocks across and dig back.

Seems to work well for me.

2-block method? 3-block method? This is a bit confusing. Do you leave 3-block-thick walls between branches in the latter, or do you carve out a branch every 3 blocks (leaving 2-block walls in between).

You can't miss anything by branching every 3 blocks (again, leaving 2-thick walls), since you can see every block in the walls from one branch or another. Leaving 3-thick walls is preferred by some, but that does risk missing some goodies. I like being thorough.

Old thread revived. Been seeing a lot of that here lately.

Quote from Cherry_Sparkles

I don't know if these pics explain my personal mining techniques very well but i'll try to explain anyway

From bedrock I build a central stairwell that goes up in increments of 3, meaning I hit level 13 (12 being the apparent optimum) and then strip mine with 2 blocks between (I have personally seen single diamonds missed using the 3 block method...in this build actually),

After the updates I don't see the point in the 3 block method anyway, now that we have enchantments I'm finding that I can get up to level 30 from a single strip mine WAY before the previously enchanted pickaxe runs out.

Nice mine system. Looks functional yet fancy. beats just digging tunnels with no aesthetic.

In Xenominer, I build an industrial stairwell from surface the bedrock, that's in a 10x10 shaft. MC's extra features (proper stairs, railings, etc) can make that look fancier. And your examples can add some flair to each level.

I plan my levels at 4 blocks high (1 block is the floor, 3 blocks above it are open space). This reveals a goodly amount of material from the sides.

I also do my branches with 2 block seperation, to maximize what I can see.

Between your examples and my standard industrial stair case (sorry, no pics) is something that looks good when you come across it, and it looks good when it enters open areas like caverns that intersect the shaft.

I just started a new world a couple of weeks ago. I spent the time building a huge house and getting resources, but in the last three days I've done other things. 1st day I dug down to bedrock then went up to y= 13 to set a room up. By that time I found diamonds to make a pickaxe. The 2nd day I went to the nether and found a fortress and blaze spawner in about two four hours. Last night, I dug an almost straight 3 by 3 mining tunnel along the bottom of my map. I found the another diamond earlier but I didn't go get a fortune three until I was done. When I went through with the fortune III I ended up with over seventy diamonds. I have had the same experience as up up says. I don't see every running out of resources. They may not be that easy ( I found like hardly any gold), but keep digging. It will take a long time to cover the whole map no matter what method.

I prefer the Y-12 mining method. You don't have to deal with lava, I've had enough of that. I heard, I believe, Y 22 for gold? Not sure. I like to dig a 3x3 high and wide tunnel, so I get more cobble and it's not so claustrophobic. ("Ho ho ho!") Then I just do 1x2 tunnels every third block. If I get really far at y 12, I'll probably go lower down to bedrock(-ish)