Ores - Space Engineers Wiki (2024)

Ore is a basic resource item, usually obtained by mining Asteroids. Using a Hand Drill or ship-mounted Drill will destroy the rock and release the Ores as objects in the world to be collected. While useless on its own, Ore can be processed in a Refinery, Basic Refinery, or Survival Kit to be turned into a useful Material.

Appearance and Identification

Identifying ore patches purely by sight can be frustrating, especially if there are two similar ores next to one another (such as Platinum and Silicon). It is for this reason that an Ore Detector is always highly recommended for the initial identification process. The Hand Drill has a small Ore Detector built in, whereas a ship-based Ore Detector has a larger detection radius. This will put the name of the ore on the HUD in approximately the center of the ore patch. However, once you have identified the vein you wish to obtain, it can often be more effective to rely on sight to guide your mining, and so a Spotlight is almost always useful for this purpose, to more easily see where one vein ends and another begins.

See the images and descriptions in the table below for more information on each ore.

Ore Information

Stone

Color varies slightly. Typically a matte midtone grey, the appearance of stone can vary a bit between brown and black.

Rarity: 31% ^[1]

Iron Ore (Fe)

Red and Grey. Iron is fairly easy to identify due to being so common and in such contrast to the grey of the surrounding stone. Focus on looking for reddish, rust-colored areas if Iron is a priority.

Rarity: 50% ^[1]

Nickel Ore (Ni)

Brown. Nickel is a straight, flat, brown, which when it spawns next to Iron shows strikingly enough to be discernable.

Rarity: 2% ^[1]

Cobalt Ore (Co)

Blue. The blue streaks are relatively easy to see, but it could be mistaken for Magnesium and vice-versa. The best way to distinguish between them is that cobalt ore has a much lighter blue and has more bluish color than grayish base.

Rarity: 2.2% ^[1]

Magnesium Ore (Mg)

Blue. Rather distinct, Magnesium is not very hard to identify, but is fairly rare, so always keep a look out for the bluish hue!

Rarity: 2.4% ^[1]

Silicon Ore (Si)

Grey. One of three greyish ores, Silicon can be the most difficult to spot due to how close its color and texture are to base stone. Its color will often vary to a light grey, almost white sheen, so look for uncharacteristically light patches.

Rarity: 2% ^[1]

Silver Ore (Ag)

Bluish-Silver. Another grey ore, Silver can be differentiated between Platinum most by its contrast: dark areas are jet black, while highlights are bright white. "Shiny" is an apt description.

Rarity: 2% ^[1]

Gold Ore (Au)

Gold. Very distinct. Can vary more to a grey-yellow in small patches or where it starts to mix with stone or iron.

Rarity: 2% ^[1]

Platinum Ore (Pt)

Grey. Can be hard to differentiate between this and stone or silicon. The most reliable distinction is the texture rather than color: stone and silicon have a rough look, while platinum is smooth.

Rarity: 2% ^[1]

Uranium Ore (U)

Black. Jet black, very shiny. Hard to miss, even in shadow (unless your server's Skybox has low light).

Rarity: 4.4% ^[1]

Ice

Blue. Blue and White, Shiny.

Scrap Metal

While technically not a mineral, it behaves just like the other ores. Scrap is acquired by drilling Blocks or grinding damaged blocks.

Refining

Each Ore (including Stone) yields some sort of usable Material once it has been refined within a Refinery or Basic Refinery. Each Ore (except for Stone) has exactly one type of Material that it produces, at various rates of efficiency; e.g. 1000 kg of Uranium Ore will not produce 1000 kg of Uranium Ingots. See each type of refiner (Refinery, Basic Refinery, Survival Kit) for their conversion tables.

Raw Materials

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} File:Ore Rarity Test.xlsx Space Engineers v01.047 - New World Generator, Asteroids Scenario, Extreme Asteroid Amount (16 large, 80 small)