Iron Ore

Breaking
Iron ore must be mined with a stone pickaxe or higher, or else it drops nothing. Unlike most ores, iron ore always drops itself, regardless of whether the player used Silk Touch.

Natural generation
Iron ore can generate in the Overworld in the form of mineral veins. Iron ore attempts to generate 20 times per chunk in veins of size 0-13, from levels 0 to 63, in all biomes. On average they generate 112 ores per chunk.

‌In Java Edition 1.17‌[upcoming], iron ore generates in three batches. The first batch attempts to generate 40 times per chunk in veins of 0-13, from levels 128 to 320, being most common around level 255 and becoming less common towards either end of the range. The second batch attempts to generate 6 times per chunk in veins of 0-13, from levels -24 to 54, being most common around level 15 and becoming less common towards either end of the range. The third batch attempts to generate 3 times per chunk in veins of 0-5, evenly from levels -63 to -32. Iron ore can replace stone, granite, diorite, andesite, tuff, and deepslate. If it replaces tuff or deepslate, it will become deepslate iron ore.

Usage
The primary usage of iron ore is to obtain iron ingots.

Note Blocks
Iron ore can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass drum" sound.

Issues
Issues relating to "Iron Ore" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.