I'm a bit tired of looking for ore by now.

[lumpman2 0]

I swear, I have been to about 5 different caves/ravines, and there is absolutely no ore in any of them. I made a copper pick, and I have a bunch of extra molds in my inventory just sitting there because I cannot find one piece of ore. Is there something I'm missing? Is there an easier way to find ore with just a pick? I'm don't exactly want to scour the entire world for 10 more copper just to get a prospector pick.

[413crossram 8]

I've just explored a couple new spawned worlds in the new update just a bit and have seen ore blocks without looking for them; neither of those times did I find them in caves/ravines however.  They just seemed to be the first stone layer rocks that became exposed from terrain generation.

[aliceingame 114]

The exploration of ravines and tunnels have never been a good prospection technique. The best thing to do is look for small nuggets on the ground. That mean there is a vein under, so if you absolutely do not want find 10 more pieces for a pro pick, you can cross your fingers and dig around the area, hoping to find the vein.

In 78 I saw many visible ore on the surface, like gold, coal, cassiterite, kaolinite and redstone, but I think this have more to to with luck.

 

When you have a good source of basic ore, dig down and make tunnels to branch mine using the pro pick.

[lumpman2 0]

I found a bit of tetrahedrite on the surface, but then I dug down and there was nothing. I spawned a propick just to see if the surface actually hinted at anything underground, but there was absolutely nothing. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be further underground, but I dug pretty much directly under where I found the copper and the pick showed "nothing of interest."

I did end up collecting enough for a legitimate pro pick, but I don't have a stick yet so I haven't been able to try looking.

[aliceingame 114]

The way to use the propick is to find the general area where small nuggets are and dig down in the middle. you will most likely have to digg at least 10 down in the rock before getting a hit on the propick, and it can give false negative, so try on more than one block. So if you get a "sample" and 10 deep, then the top of the vein is most likely at 22 deep.

[scotty2 11]

I got all the copper for an entire initial set of casted tools via gold panning.

It's a bit tedious, but I didn't mind it. it gave me something to do while waiting for pit kilns to finish their work

 

Also, later on after some boat exploring i happened upon a mountain laced on the outside with gold and copper- awesome. I'm so glad above-surface deposits are back!

 

[Terex 108]

The nuggets on the surface can now hint at ore bodies way deeper than before in the previous builds (ie. top of middle rock layer even). Keep digging down and your pro-pick should eventually start giving signs. The ore bodies are now genuinely dispersed and no longer concentrated at a specific y level if you played earlier versions of TFC.

[VegasGoat 51]

Gold panning is the way to go now. You can do it anywhere and always get copper, gold and silver, which can be used to make black bronze tools (6-2-2 ratio). It only took me 3 MC days to get my pick and pro-pick this way (only panning during the day).

 

Leave the ore nuggets on the surface as markers for where you should dig once you get the tools.

[landryx 36]

that's it !