Cave Mining in Minecraft - For Dummies

Cave mining in Minecraft is challenging yet fruitful. To start, you must find a large cave — perhaps while working on another mine or exploring. If you can find a large cave, you have a useful resource at your disposal.

Caves are generally very dark — and in Minecraft, darkness means monsters! Always be on your guard, carry weapons (and perhaps armor), and light up the cave with torches.

Cave mining is useful — you can obtain many scattered resources without wearing out your tools trying to plow through stone. However, caves can sometimes be deadly labyrinths, and you may lose your items if your avatar dies. You have to decide whether the payoff in resources is worth the risk of losing them.

Cave mining tips

When mining in a cave, simply light the way and skim the walls for minerals you can use. Iron ore is common, but keep an eye out for it to collect it, anyway.

If you can mine deep enough, you may find useful materials such as redstone, gold, and diamond. However, you may also come across lava — the bane of careless miners. Lava flows slowly and destroys items (and you!), so avoid it and ensure that your precious ores don’t fall anywhere near it.

Navigating ravines and canyons

Sometimes, while exploring or mining, you come across ravines. These narrow, deep gaps can appear underground or on the surface. Although ravines can contain lots of lava and monsters and are cumbersome to navigate, they expose a lot of surface area and are useful for finding minerals.

Ravines are great places to find iron and coal. Ravines are usually on the surface, making them easy to spot. However, because they are not deep, you cannot mine some types of valuable material, including diamonds, gold, and redstone.

A ravine also provides an excellent shelter because mobs cannot spawn on the walls of the ravine. You need to light the bottom around you using torches.

If you enjoy mining and spend most of your time using a pickaxe, build a little rest area underground. You might want to include a bed, chests, and even a farm to provide you with food. Your house doesn’t have to be located on grass.