GregTech 5/Mining and Processing

Ores
GregTech disables all Vanilla ores (except Emerald Ore, because Mojang did weird things with it) and replaces them with its own ore generation patterns. These patterns are compatible either by default or through configuration with almost all ores from almost all other mods, so unless explicitly noted, ore generation from other mods can and should be disabled, as GregTech will compensate.

There are two types of ore generation: Small Ores and Mix Veins. Small Ores generate as semi-common single blocks. They are intended as a way to get started and acquire initial tools, but are not intended to be used as primary sources of metal for machinery. When broken, they drop either a Crushed Ore, an Impure Pile of Ore Dust, or, if applicable, a Gem. Additionally, they may drop a Dust or a Dirty Dust of the Stone they were found in. (This can be Stone, Netherrack, Red/Black Granite, or End Stone.) Small Ores cannot be picked up with a Silktouch Pickaxe, however a Fortune Pickaxe will slightly increase their yields. Importantly, Small Ores can be mined at 1 mining level lower than the ores they contain, allowing a miner with a Stone-level pickaxe to obtain enough Iron to craft an Iron Pickaxe.

Mix Veins can generate only one vein per 3x3 chunk area, however Mix Veins can contain hundreds or even thousands of blocks of ore. Mix Veins can contain up to four different ores. Vein contents are dependent upon height and dimension, but are not dependent upon biome. Veins can range in size from 16x16x5 up to 80x80x8 blocks, with very few and small gaps between ore blocks. However, ore veins can only generate where they have Stone, Red/Black Granite, Netherrack, or End Stone that can be replaced by ore blocks. Mix Veins come in four parts: Primary, Secondary, Inbetween, and Around. Each of them can be a different ore. Primary, Secondary, and Inbetween ores are generated as stack ranges. The upper 2-4 levels of a vein will be almost all 'Primary' ore, the lower 2-4 levels will be almost all 'Secondary' ore, and the middle 2-4 levels will be mostly 'Inbetween' ore. 'Around' ore appears at the outer border of the vein. When viewed from a distance either via an X-Ray mod or after having removed all Stone in the area, ore Mix Veins look like large, somewhat oval-shaped clouds. Ore vein generation occurs as a three step process. First, a random point within the center chunk of the area is chosen as the starting point for generation. Then, a random Ore Mix is chosen. If that ore vein can be generated at that point (dimension is correct, altitude is in range, stone is available), size variables are generated, ore generation propagates out, and the vein is formed. If either of the first two checks fail, the algorithm tries again at a new point. Up to three attempts will be made per valid area. If all three checks fail, then no Mix Vein will be generated in that area. On average, this happens about 1/4th of the time, although it happens less commonly in Extreme Hills or similarly mountainous terrain.

Note: If [Custom Ore Generation] or [Per Fabrica Ad Astra: Geologica] are installed, GregTech will disable its own ore generation and use COG or PFAA generation. COG contains default configurations for GregTech ores, and PFAA contains its own forms and generation patterns for even more ores than GregTech generates by default.

Default Ore Mixes
The following is a list of all Ore Mix Veins that GregTech can generate by default. (Note: The Naquadah Ore Mix configuration is present but disabled by default.)

Name: The name given to the mix in configuration. This does not have an effect in-game.

Density: How tightly packed the ores are in a vein. Lower values can cause small gaps between ore blocks.

Max Height: The maximum height at which the vein can generate.

Min Height: The minimum height at which the vein can generate.

OrePrimaryLayer: Metadata value of the Primary ore in the vein

OreSecondaryLayer: Metadata value of the Secondray ore in the vein

OreSporadiclyInbeween: Metadata value of the Inbeween ore in the vein

OreSporadiclyAround: Metadata value of the Around ore in the vein

RandomWeight: How likely it is for this vein to spawn. The higher this value is, the better the chance. This value is relative to the total of the RandomWeight values of all the ore veins. The default configuration has a total weight of 1850, so for example,a vein with a RandomWeight of 160 has a 160/1850 (8,6%) chance to spawn per generation attempt.

Size: The maximum area an ore vein can occupy. A vein with a Size of 0 will always occupy a 16x16 block area, while a vein with a Size of 32 can occupy an area up to 80x80 blocks.

Overworld: Can this vein generate in the Overworld? (True/False)

Nether: Can this vein spawn in the Nether? (True/False)

End: Can this vein spawn in the End? (True/False)

Note: GregTech will not generates ores normally in dimensions other than the Overworld, Nether, and End. However, the mod GalacticGreg was created to allow GregTech ores to generate in Galacticraft's Moon and Mars dimensions.

All of these values are present in and were extracted from config/GregTech/WorldGeneration.cfg. WorldGeneration.cfg also includes empty slots for user-defined ore mixes. The ores listed here appear in the configuration file as their metadata values, which range from 1 to 1000, and can be found in two ways: If you do look, you will notice that GregTech contains many, many more ores than it generates by default. If you want the ores, you need only add Mixes for them.
 * Load into a world, then leave it, then go to [game directory]/logs/GregTech.log. That file will contain a list of every single material registered in GregTech. Any occupied number between 1 and 1000 can be an Ore.
 * Load into a world and look up 'Ore' in NEI, with Block IDs and Damage Values/Metadata displayed. The Stone variant of every GregTech ore will bear that ore's metadata value. (The other variants will bear that value, offset by several thousand.)

Elements Contained in Ores
''Many, many ores contain traces of Oxygen and Hydrogen. For simplicity, they have not been included in this list.''

If an Ore contains more than one element or material as a primary output, that ore represents a compound which must separated at some point in its processing, usually with an Electrolyzer.

Second Level Processing
These are compounds that need further processing.

Tools
GregTech also has its own Toolsystem. The startinglevel of GT Tools are Flinttools.

Every Tool can be made out of most metals and also some crystals.

Their durability also works different. The base durability is 100x the usual Durability, but takes more damage depending on the hardness of the mined Material. Sand does 25 Durability damage, Stone 100, Obsidian even 1250. They can not be entchanted, but gain the same effects by using certain materials. Basic Tools can be crafted by combining a Toolhead with an Stick. Since the Toolheads can be stacked up to 64, it is possible to transport the Materials for 64 Tools in 2 Inventary slots and craft them without an crafting table. On the Page of the Pickaxe (GregTech) is an List of the usable Materials with its Durabilities, Mining Speeds and Enchants.

Midgame the Tools get Electric Versions with higher Durability and Miningspeed. These need to be charged with EU, but only take Durability damage every 25th time used. The Drill (HV) even rises the Mininglevel of the Material by one. The Jackhammer (HV) is the fastes Tool in GT, but only can mine Stone. Electric Tools can be repaired by taking them apart in the Disassembler and craft it again from the recycled parts.

Manual Processing
The first form of processing is smelting the Orebocks in an Furnace, returning an ingot or some gems. Should you need some Dust from Ores, like Redstone, first crush the placed Oreblock with an hammer to get crushed Ore. Craft that crushed ore with an hammer to get impure Dust. Then throw the impure dust in an filled Couldron to wash it to get normal Dust.

Steam Processing
Once you reach the Bronzeage with its steammachines, you can double your ores with an Steam Macerator. Most Metals can be smelted directly, some even yield 10 Nuggets. Some must be turned into clean ores first to be usable. These must be macerated twice and then cleaned by throwing them into a couldron. More steam efficient and faster is to replace the second macerating by hammering in a steam forge hammer.

Lategame Processing
Lategame Processing incudes many different machines.



Macerator: Central Machine in GregTech oreprocessing. Doubles the Output from Ores. HV version (Univeral Macherator) and up also produce byproducts with an 10% chance.

Hammer, Forge Hammer: Like Macerator. Without oredoubleing or byproducts, but much faster and needs less energy. Mostly used early on before the Universal Macherator.

Ore Washing Plant: Cleans crushed ores. Needs water to work and produces a tiny pile of byproducts.

Chemical Bath: Cleans certain crushed ores with chemicals to produce more sideproducts compared to the Ore Washing Plant.

Centrifuge: Used to clean Dust for sideproducts or to seperate compunds into its base element dusts. Sometimes Purified/Impure Dusts should be smelted directly to yield more endproducts. Example: Purified Tetrahedrite Dust smelting produces 1 copper ingot. Centrifugeing produces 6/9 copper and 1/9 zinc or 3/8 Copper, 1/8 antimony, 3/8 sulfur, 1/8 iron and 1/9 zinc.

Thermal Centrifuge: Thermal Centrifuge and then Macerator needs more Energy compared to first macerator and then centrifuge, but is the only way to get the 3rd byproduct. Also sometimes centrifuged ores can be smelted for 10 nuggets instead of 1 ingot.

Sifting Machine: The amount of gems and dusts is about the same as processing all to dusts, but should gems be needed, this machine safes a lot of work.

Electromagnetic Separator: Should an purified dust have magnetic elements as byproducts(iron, gold, neodynium), this machine can rise the output of them but needs a lot more energy then centrifuging.

Electrolyzer: Used to seperate compunds into its base elements.

Electric Blast Furnace: A few compunds can be directly smelted in the EBF instead of using the electrolyzer or centrifuge. That yields a slightly higher output, but needs a lot more energy.