When I'm not exploring fresh caves or lands in minecraft, I'm busy trying to find deposits of diamond, gold and iron deep in the earth. So far I've just been digging around just above bedrock on a whim to look for these rare minerals but I've started thinking that I should be taking a more controlled, efficient approach to mining.

**What is the optimal mining strategy that yields the most rare minerals while minimizing blocks removed and time spent digging and traveling?**

**Edit:** The existing answers are great for mining, but no one has addressed travel time to and from the mine which is usually ~60 blocks downward and incredibly tedious. Solutions?
['https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/8310', 'https://gaming.stackexchange.com', 'https://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/1070/']
There is a [great wiki](https://web.archive.org/web/20131208061328/http://www.voxelwiki.com/minecraft/Elites_of_Minecraft:_The_Miner) with some number crunching.

I use this in single player:

```
▒▒██▒▒__▒▒__   ██ blocks you should mine
▒▒██▒▒__▒▒__   ▒▒ blocks you can see
__▒▒__▒▒██▒▒   __ blocks you can't see if you don't mine ▒▒ blocks
__▒▒__▒▒██▒▒   Repeat this pattern as many times as needed

```

Normally, I have a 2x1 trunk, and branches like a standard branch mine, but instead of just going outwards from the trunk, I go up one level and out, skip two blocks, then down one level and out. I leave two blocks between branches. And I leave two blocks between floors, and line up the branches the same between floors.

There are some areas left unexplored by this pattern, but they are thin, and it is unlikely that a diamond vein with spawn entirely within that narrow region. (About 3% will). The larger number of blocks uncovered are far more likely to contain diamonds.

> 
> If your high density branch mine gets you 100% diamonds, the low density branch mine would give you **212.6%** ores in the same time, minus 3% from the earlier probability worked out before.
> 
> 
> 

Also, you ought to build it so that the floor of the lowest tunnel is on level 11, to avoid falling in lava. If you find that there are few cave systems near your mine, feel free to dig lower, but caves tend to cluster, and caves level 10 and below are filled with lava.

I dig my main tunnel on both sides of the area I want to cover, then dig back and forth in a zigzag patten, which means I'm always digging, never walking.

I'm not sure if this is true anymore, but it used to be that larger deposits were formed by the word generator in multiplayer, so you were less likely to miss diamond deposits when using a wider mining pattern. Thus, this pattern

```
▒▒██▒▒____▒▒____  ██ blocks you should mine
▒▒██▒▒____▒▒____  ▒▒ blocks you can see
__▒▒____▒▒██▒▒__  __ blocks you can't see if you don't mine ▒▒ blocks
__▒▒____▒▒██▒▒__     Repeat this pattern as many times as needed

```

is more efficient.

As for transit? I use a long two wide straight staircase that goes all the way to bedrock. Minecarts work well for getting me deep into the mine.
The easiest way to mine is to mine a 2x2 tunnel horizontally. You can cover 8 blocks that way, with the same amount of blocks mined as a branch mine, which only reveals 6 blocks. As for getting up and down, use a water fall cushion (to jump into, must be 2 deep) and a water LADDER (check the youtube videos to see what it is).