What area of the map can you find the most minerals in Minecraft 1.2.4?

Answer 1

Unless you're using a mod that specifically changes mineral distribution, the only thing that changes ore distribution is elevation on the map. So you understand the coordinates - full numbers are the boundaries between blocks. Level 0 is the top of the void underneath the world (which is no longer accessible, as far as I know), and the top is...I guess it's 255 or 256 now. (It used to be 128.)

Some useful reference measurements: Bedrock/Adminium only shows up in 0-5. Lava tends to show up in vast quantities below 10. (Thus I recommend not mining below 10, as you might suddenly find your drift ending in a wall of lava - and if you're anything like me, you'll be watching a movie or something as you drift-mine.) Sea level is at 64.

The ore-spawning levels I have memorized are from before the sky limit increase. Excepting coal, I think everything is still the same (after all, sea level didn't change and everything but coal had an occurrence elevation based on sea level), but be aware that some of these numbers might be a little off. I do know diamond is the same, and it's the one you should be using to define the upper limits of your mine.

Coal: Probably off the top of the map. I see no reason they'd have changed it - it was 128 before the height change, so it's probably 256 now.

Iron: 64 and below. Anywhere below sea level

Gold: 32 and below. The lower half of the underground

Diamond and Redstone: 16 and below. The lowest quarter of the underground

Lapis Lazuli: 10-18 or so. It's the only one with a lower limit above void, making it a bit of an oddity.

The best area for mining in terms of safety and material yield is between 10 and 16. That should get you out of most of the lava while leaving every block you mine capable of being any type of ore.

The following mining pattern should enable you to directly see every block in that area. x is a mined block, o is one left behind:

xxooxxoo

oxoooxoo

oooxooox

oooxooox

oxoooxoo

xxooxxoo

As you can see, every unmined block (o) is exposed to a mined block.

The top and bottom levels have a shelf carved out so you can see one more strip of blocks - that which would, in an infinite pattern, be exposed by the floor of the next level up and the roof of the next level down. (You might have to take the block above the 1 block gap in the lower level, too, so you can see the extra block you exposed. This is an optional extra - the odds of missing out on anything significant by just cutting 1x2 tunnels are quite low.

If you meant materials instead of minerals, most rare substances (including coal, iron and gold, actually) can be more efficiently produced in sustainable generation structures of some kind or other. These vary in complexity from chicken coops for egg farming to waterless mob grinders for gold. Clay's the only thing you really have to look hard to find that you can't later reproduce, except for ores.