Mithril Ore

"Mithril! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim."

- Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 5, A Journey in the Dark

Mithril is the most valuable material in Middle-earth. The ore is extremly rare but the best weapons, tools and armours can be crafted out of mithril.

Occurence
Mithril ore can only be found in the Misty Mountains (not the Misty Mountain Foothills) at layer 16 or below (similar to diamond ore). It is around twice as rare as diamond ore.

To mine it, you need a pickaxe of diamond or mithril strength, but a dwarven pickaxe will work as well.

The states, that there is a 0,1% chance to find a diamond ore, that's 1 diamond ore in 1000 blocks. As mithril is twice as rare, that would be 1 mithril ore in 2000 blocks. Depending how fast you mine or how fast you run the caves, it probably takes several minecraft weeks (which equals several real time hours) to find enough mithril ore to craft a whole suit of armor (you need 24 ingots).

Recognition
 When you look at the picture to the left, you'll notice, that it is quite difficult to tell the 4 white ores apart. You can recognize mithril ore by its unique texture and the light blue greyish color.

Production
As mithril smithing is a technology only known by the dwarves, you need a Dwarven Forge to melt the ore. You get one mithril ingot from each ore block.