Iron Ore

Iron Ore is one of the most common metal ores in Oxygen Not Included and is found in large quantities in the Caustic Biome, with more modest deposits in the oil biome. It does not provide any inherent decor bonus or overheat temperature bonus, so its value comes less from special material properties and more from how plentiful it is and how many progression paths it supports.

Among metal ores, Iron Ore has one of the highest melting points, exceeded only by Wolframite, but this rarely matters in normal play because buildings are usually limited by overheat temperature before a material actually melts. In the situations where melting point does matter, such as handling the output of normal or metal volcanoes or working near rocket exhaust, Wolframite and Tungsten are usually better choices.

Its main use is as the raw material for refined Iron, which is then used in Steel production. Because iron is abundant while many other useful ores are limited, Iron Ore is often the practical choice for early and midgame metal processing.

• A Metal Refinery converts Iron Ore into Iron at a 1:1 ratio. 100 kg Iron Ore = 100 kg Iron.
• A Rock Crusher can also convert Iron Ore into Iron, but this is inefficient. 100 kg Iron Ore = 50 kg Iron + 50 kg Sand.
• Rust Deoxidizers can consume Rust and Salt to produce Oxygen, Chlorine, and Iron Ore. The output is 570 g/s Oxygen + 30 g/s Chlorine + 400 g/s Iron Ore from 750 g/s Rust + 250 g/s Salt.
• Iron Ore can be harvested from renewable space points of interest on rocket missions, specifically from Space Debris, at a rate of 90–270 kg per cycle.

Several critters can also make use of Iron Ore as food, turning it into other resources. Stone Hatches consume it and excrete Coal, while also increasing the chance of laying Smooth Hatch eggs. Smooth Hatches consume Iron Ore and excrete Iron at 75% mass, making them a lower-tech alternative to a Metal Refinery that avoids coolant handling and complex setup, but with reduced efficiency and much lower throughput. A single Smooth Hatch processes only 100 kg of Iron Ore per day, so even a full ranch will not match the output of a continuously running refinery.

Shove Voles can also eat Iron Ore debris and excrete it as solid tiles of Iron Ore at 50% mass, which then lose another 50% mass when mined. This is generally not worth doing, since Shove Voles are better fed with more abundant and less useful materials such as Regolith.