Efficiently Bulk-Processing Raw Metal Blocks with Multiple Blast Furnaces

Why Scale Up

Since each raw metal block smelts into a full metal block worth nine ingots, large mining trips can leave you with many raw blocks to process. A single blast furnace becomes a bottleneck. Running several blast furnaces in parallel lets you process a whole batch at once.

Building a Processing Array

1. Craft multiple blast furnaces — one per raw block type is a good start, or more if you have the materials.

2. Place them in a row with a chest or hopper feeding fuel and raw blocks in, and hoppers pulling finished blocks out.

3. Use hoppers to automate input: a hopper above each blast furnace can drop in raw blocks, and a hopper below can collect the output.

4. Keep a steady fuel supply — coal blocks or lava buckets last a long time and reduce refueling trips.

Organizing Your Output

Because blast furnaces are fast, you can quickly accumulate stacks of metal blocks. Dedicate separate furnaces to iron, copper, and gold so you do not mix outputs. Route each furnace's hopper output into a labeled chest. From there, craft blocks into ingots only when you need them, or keep them as blocks for compact storage and building. This setup turns a tedious one-by-one smelting chore into a hands-off bulk operation.