Maximizing Ore Drops with Smelting Enchantment

Understanding Smelting Output

When you mine an ore with the Smelting enchantment, it automatically converts to its smelted form as it drops. Instead of collecting raw ore and smelting it later, you receive the finished product directly—iron ingots instead of raw iron, gold ingots instead of raw gold, and so on.

Combining with Other Enchantments

Pair Smelting with Fortune to maximize your gains. While Smelting automatically smelts ores, Fortune increases the number of items dropped, meaning you'll get more ingots per ore block mined. These enchantments work together effectively.

You can also combine Smelting with Efficiency to mine faster, or Unbreaking to extend your pickaxe's durability during long mining sessions.

Best Practices

Use your Smelting pickaxe on ore blocks you'd normally smelt anyway—iron, gold, copper, and similar ores. Avoid using it on ores that don't benefit from smelting, like diamond or emerald, since those drop as-is regardless of the enchantment.