Arc Adegbite further noted that such retreats were important, adding part of the resolutions of the 2019 retreat resulted in the creation of the Mining
Since Minecraft’s inception, there have been two ways to collect mined resources. Mining Coal, Redstone, Diamonds, and Emeralds have always dropped the resource itself, while Iron, Gold, and eventually Copper always just dropped the Ore Block as is and required smelting. While smelting will still be involved, the mining process of gathering our three smeltable resources has changed as of Minecraft Snapshot 21w14a, and will come to the latest release in the Caves & Cliffs major update.
While Ore Blocks themselves are still smeltable if existent in a chest or inventory on an old world, or mined with a Silk Touch Pickaxe, Ore Blocks are no longer the norm. Instead of dropping an Ore Block, mining an Ore Block of a smeltable resource will drop a new item called Raw Ore.