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/']
Dig down to bedrock with a staircase. Then make a room about 10 by 10. Finally branch out on each side of the wall. Pick one side and go with it untill it is to long. Then get another side. Once all four are branched, branch off them. I now have about 15-20 BLOCKS of diamond 20-23 BLOCKS of gold like 30-50 stacks of coal no red (I don't mine it just go around) and 40-45 BLOCKS of iron all totaling about 7 hrs of work
A good way to mine fast is by using a Haste II beacon combined with an Efficiency V Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe or some of the above answers are useful too.

Edit: The above solution is good for pre-1.18 but only works while you're in the Beacon's range. Now, **Moss** is a faster solution, and once you get a Mob Grinder, you can get a lot of Bone Meal to replace all Stone types (and ***only*** Stone types, so the ores are safe) with more Moss, allowing for faster mining and less durability lost of your Pickaxe, with the fastest speeds being achieved with a Diamond or Netherite ***hoe***.