Ores

Ores are primary crafting materials necessary for game advancement. They generally must be crafted into bars at a Furnace, after which they can craft several essential tools, weapons, armor, and other items. Some items require raw Ores themselves, most commonly bricks and potions. Raw Ores can also be used as plain blocks for construction.

Ores are generally found as veins of placed blocks Underground and below, and are mined with a Pickaxe. Lower-tier Ores can be found among Dirt near the Surface, or within Floating Islands. Some Ores are also dropped by bosses, namely Eye of Cthulhu, Eater of Worlds, Brain of Cthulhu,  Ocram, and the  Moon Lord.

An Extractinator, or Wooden Crates (from Fishing), may also provide Ores as random rewards.

Most of the time a world will only contain one Ore type from each tier, which are chosen at random (see tables below). The alternate Ore types that don't generate naturally in a world can be obtained from Crates, an Extractinator, or from other worlds. Hardmode Ore types are chosen at random when players destroy Altars.

Pre-Hardmode
command.
 * All ores except Hellstone and Obsidian are highlighted by the Spelunker buff, making it easy to find veins of ore. Hellstone is not lit up by the buff, but it is by a Dangersense Potion. Obsidian is easily found and made around lava.
 * Using a Crate Potion will improve the chances of obtaining crates, and as such the ore-bearing Wooden Crates.
 * If you fill in caves with spare natural blocks such as dirt, Hardmode ores can spawn in them. They can then also be seen on the minimap, presenting an easy way to convert extra blocks into ores and know their exact location.
 * In the, the Palladium Pickaxe and drill can mine Adamantite and Titanium.

Trivia

 * Hellstone, as an item, is a recolor of Silver Ore.
 * Most ores, when placed in pre-1.3 worlds, also appeared to be a modified stone texture, these being the ones released before 1.2, plus Platinum and possibly Palladium. Tin and Lead also seem to currently share a base texture.
 * Hellstone and Chlorophyte are the only ores which cannot be infinitely generated within a single world:
 * The 8 pre-Hardmode ores can be obtained from an Extractinator or Slime bonus drops.
 * The 8 pre-Hardmode ores and the Hardmode Ores that spawn from destroying Altars can be obtained from Crates.
 * Meteorite impacts can fall onto and convert other blocks such as Sand, which is infinitely reproducible.
 * Demonite, Crimtane, Luminite, and on the console edition, Adamantite, can be obtained by fighting bosses.
 * Obsidian can be created using liquid duplication.
 * Though Chlorophyte naturally grows through Mud, Mud and Dirt are plentiful, they are not inexhaustible. And thus, there is a finite amount of Chlorophyte that a single world can produce.
 * Iron and Lead are the only ores not to have bricks.
 * Despite being the end-game ore, Chlorophyte Ore only sells for 6 silver coins per ore. This may be because the player can keep farming large amounts of Chlorophyte Ore and selling it for money. Luminite sells for the most, being 30 silver coins per ore.

History
礦石 광석 Minéraux Ores Minérios Ore/es