Iron ore

Where to find it#

If you want iron on the surface, get up off the low ground. Once you're more than about 5 m above the sea, about one boulder in 4 is iron, and the higher and rockier the country gets, the more boulders there are. Down by the coast and along the rivers you won't find iron boulders at all. If you just need a little to get going, there's a small iron boulder a few steps west of the camp fire.

Up on the high ground you'll sometimes come across a rich seam, a cluster of heavy stones that each give a lot more than a normal boulder. About one seam in 3 is iron, and abandoned mines often have rich iron stones round the old headframe too.

Underground, most of the iron is in a thin band of black shale under the coal, on levels 3 and 4. The rock layers are flat, so that band runs across the level like a stripe. If you hit some, keep tunnelling the same way and you'll usually find more.

There's also iron in the marble right up against the granite, in a ring around each granite dome on levels 3 to 7. It's the same place you'll find some of the copper.

How much you get#

A boulder gives you 2 iron ore and 1 stone when you break it with a pick. A stone from a rich seam gives 8. In the mine you'll get 1 to 3 ore out of each cell you dig.

Which level#

You can find it on levels 2 to 7, and level 3 has the most.

This is how much each level has across the whole map, compared to the best one.

What it's for#

• Smelt it at a forge with a lump of coal to make an iron bar. Bars are worked into fittings for doors, water gates, wells, bridges, rowboats and wagons, and into lanterns, shears, swords and iron tools.