Finding Hematite (Iron)

[Kristofferdee]

Hello everyone, I'm a new player, I've got about 17 hours played by now and I have everything I need except for Iron and Borax, which eludes me fully. I have found iron through prospecting but can't locate it. I tried searching previous topics but I still can't seem to find Hematite, I might not be searching far enough, or maybe I just simply don't understand how prospecting actually works.

Firstly, am I correct in thinking that Hematite only generates in certain stones? If so which ones, and would mining in a place where there are more correct stone types with lower percentage be better than high percentage with only 1 correct stone down below?

Underneath I've put my Everything prospects and only Hematite prospects It's only yellow in 1 place and leads to nowhere green, with red all around in thousands of blocks of range. Do I need to go even further or should I be able to find it somewhere in my Decent area?

I also play on all default settings except land cover which I believe is 95% now instead of 100%, no world height or other things have been changed.

Any responses will be appreciated

Edited March 2, 2025 by Kristofferdee

[Kristofferdee]

I forgot to mention that I already have multiple "shafts" leading down to Y-level 5 in the middle of my Decent readings. If I am correct there is only Peridote down there which should be able to spawn iron? I have prospected with node search all the way down and built out tunnels in hopes of finding some*

[Never Jhonsen]

3 minutes ago, Kristofferdee said:

Firstly, am I correct in thinking that Hematite only generates in certain stones? If so which ones

You are correct! You can find this through the handbook, abet in an indirect way. When you open your handbook ('H' key by default), you can search up "Hematite" and scroll down through the search results. It will show you the various rocks that it spawns in. I wish it would list it directly on the Hematite page, but for now we make do with what we have.

7 minutes ago, Kristofferdee said:

I might not be searching far enough, or maybe I just simply don't understand how prospecting actually works.

It looks like you have the first part of the Prospecting Pick down very well Using the ranged search to pinpoint potential locations as to where various ores could be. There is a second part to the prospecting pick however, and you can access that by pressing the modifier key ('F' key by default). There are two modes; A long ranged search, and a more direct, local search. The first mode tells you the potential for an ore to be in an area, while the short range will tell you exactly what IS in an area. I forget what the default block radius is, as I always play with the max block radius of 8 blocks.

Go back down your shafts and use the short range search. Mine a block, and look in the chat for the area results. If you see no Hematite, mine out some blocks (For me with an 8 block radius, it'll be 8*2 + 1 extra block) and try again.

[Zane Mordien]

5 shafts and you didn't hit anything in a "decent" reading area.. Ouch that's bad luck. Even if you didn't use the other propick option. Decent is defiantly as high as you need to go looking for it. You can pretty easily find iron even at poor readings in 5 shafts.

[Kristofferdee]

Update: I have checked the entirety of 6 chunks in the area where i marked in the start of the post. Not 1 piece of iron to be found. I simply gave up and started running far away. I managed to find a High Hemalite 4.61% On my way down my first shaft I found Huge amounts of Rich Hemalite.

Thanks for all the help guys. Borax here I come

[Zane Mordien]

Wow that was a long run for iron. That is my usual run to find Borax or limestone.