Uranium Ore

alaindustrial:uranium_ore

MaterialsImplementedmaterialoresworldgennuclear

Where to dig

Y -24Best level

Y -64 … 16Full range

up to 4 blocksVein size

1Vein tries per chunk

The slice is drawn from the ore's own generation numbers: the more ore blocks in a row, the higher the chance at that depth.

ore in the wall tunnel at the best level

Summary

Uranium is the mod's rarest metal, reserved for the nuclear track (RTG, reactor, enrichment). Its ore spawns in tiny veins at middling depths, and unlike the other ores it needs an iron pickaxe or better — wood, gold and stone drop nothing.

Mini-example: same two processing routes as tin — furnace for 1 ingot per ore, Macerator for 2. But uranium is roughly seven times rarer than diamond, so each block and each raw drop matters; macerate, don't furnace.

There is no vanilla uranium, so the ingot is a mod item. Uranium is not sitting idle: its dust goes into the enriched uranium torch, the ingot is part of the teleporter's recipe, and the incubator spends the ingot as an irradiation charge during mutations (one ingot covers three attempts, leaving behind depleted uranium).

There is a second processing route as well — through the Thermal Centrifuge. Instead of smelting the dust into an ingot you can split it in two: dust → 2 concentrate → (Compressor, two into one) → 1 enriched uranium. Together with the macerator's doubling that gives two enriched uranium from a single ore block instead of one ingot from a plain smelt — but it takes a line with a heater and a redstone signal.

Where to find it

Uranium spawns between Y −64 and Y 16, but not at the very bottom: it is densest in the middle of that range, around Y −24, and thins out toward both ends. Diamond depth (about Y −59) is where you will find the least of it — the usual reason behind "I have been mining for days and found nothing".

Veins are tiny, roughly seven times rarer than diamond. Bring an iron pickaxe (or better) — anything weaker drops nothing.

Block Properties

Unlike the mod's other ores, uranium needs an iron pickaxe or better — wood, gold and stone pickaxes drop nothing. Otherwise it behaves like a vanilla ore: the drop scales with Fortune, and Silk Touch yields the ore block itself.

Recipes (processing)

Two routes out of one vein.

Furnace route (no machines): smelt the raw (or the ore) into an ingot — 1 ingot per ore. Works in any furnace: vanilla, Iron Furnace or Electric Furnace. Macerator route (doubling): grind a block of ore (or the raw) into 2 dust, then smelt each dust into an ingot — 2 ingots per ore. Smelting dust is a mod recipe available only in the Electric Furnace — neither the vanilla nor the Iron Furnace read it.

Re-processing a finished ingot grinds back down to 1 dust (no doubling). The doubling only applies to the whole ore block (or raw).

Progression

Uranium is reserved for the nuclear track — the reactor and the RTG — which arrives in later phases. But even now it has consumers: the dust goes into the Enriched Uranium Torch, the ingot is part of the Teleporter recipe, and the Incubator spends the ingot as an irradiation charge during mutations (one ingot — three attempts, leaving depleted uranium). A spare ingot can also be sold to the industrialist villager for emeralds.

The first step of the nuclear track is already done: the Thermal Centrifuge yields enriched uranium (U-235) — the material that makes a heater line worth building. Since it has a consumer: it goes into a fuel rod, and the rod into a reactor column.

Related

Enriched Uranium Torch — a use for uranium dust. Teleporter — its recipe takes a uranium ingot. Incubator — spends the ingot as an irradiation charge. Tin — the structural sample for an ore material (same processing). Macerator — unlocks the doubled-yield route. Silver, Nickel — the mod's other rare metals.

Used in

Blasting

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Uranium Ingot

Smelting (Furnace)

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Uranium Ingot