How to Get Started with FTB Materials: Ore Processing Basics

Finding and Mining Ores

FTB Materials adds a wide range of ores to world generation, including Aluminum, Antimony, Apatite, Bauxite, Chromium, Cinnabar, and more. These spawn at various Y-levels depending on the material. Aluminum and Bauxite tend to appear in common stone layers, while rarer materials like Chromium and Antimony may require deeper exploration. Use a standard pickaxe to mine the ore blocks; they drop raw chunks or ore blocks that you will process further.

Turning Ore into Usable Materials

The core loop in FTB Materials is converting raw ore into processed forms. Most ores follow a chain: Ore → Dirty Dust → Dust → Ingot. You will need a macerator, pulverizer, or similar grinding machine from your tech mod of choice to break ore down into dirty dust. Dirty dust must then be washed or processed further to remove impurities before smelting into a clean dust. Clean dust smelts into ingots in any furnace.

Some materials skip the dust stage entirely. Apatite, for example, drops gems directly. Others like Cinnabar may yield different outputs. Always check what each ore drops before assuming a universal chain. Once you have ingots, you can craft them into plates, rods, gears, and wires using metal presses or rolling machines, depending on your tech mods.