iron ores are not spawning.

[tentacle]

this is my first save and i just now discovered hematite, magnetite, and limonite seem to only spawn in "miniscule" amounts when i prospect. And if i actually look in those areas i don't find any(tbh i definitely wasted waaaay too much time searching caves and nearby areas when minuscule (rarely) showed up).

I've gone through a way too many of bismuth bronze prospecting pickaxes/pickaxes to count. and traveled like almost an in-game week in each direction from spawn and still can't find any.

is there another reliable way to get iron or is there a specific area or biome or rock its more likely to spawn in? i have put a lot of time and effort into this save and really really don't want to give it up.

i would be extremely grateful for any help you can provide.

[Streetwind]

I had a game world once, in 1.16, where that was copper for me. I had everything else - literally built my base on a "very high" cassiterite peak by sheer chance. But copper? It just didn't want to go above "very poor", no matter which direction I looked or how far I roamed. Needless to say, earlygame was... slow.

Then I took a translocator, and it shunted me 3500 blocks away. Over there? Plenty of copper! When I didn't need it anymore. Welp.

What I mean to say is: random chances sometimes go streaky. You're having exceptionally bad luck in your current area - so perhaps you need to try somewhere else entirely. A translocator would be my recommendation. There are more of those around than you think - try exploring every cave opening in your area.

As for where to look for iron? Any rock type except for bauxite and minor strata (kimberlite, marble, etc) can spawn some kind of iron. But andesite, chalk, conglomerate, and claystone are technically the worst. They can only host magnetite, which has the lowest abundance of all iron ores, and cannot host rich quality deposits on top of that. By contrast, chert, shale, granite, and peridotite tend to have the most abundant and richest kinds of iron deposits. The differences aren't that large, but they can be noticeable.

Also keep in mind that all iron ores, regardless of type, try less than once per chunk column to actually place a deposit. Even an "ultra high" chunk may not actually generate anything. So while it's still very much worth to chase a high peak reading, you should be prepared to go digging in multiple chunks surrounding that peak reading, in case it turns up empty. Vertical shafts around 40 to 50 blocks apart from each other work well. Iron deposits, when they do spawn, are simply that large. And when you do find one, chances are you'll be set for a good long while.