Razorskin said:
This? Because I'm hitting it but get nothing back.
Did you read my post? I went into detail on exactly what you need to do to get the minerals to appear from mineral blocks (and yes, that is coal. if you hit it with a stone or better pickaxe, it will produce coal). I'll repost it:
You need to find coal veins. You can find it by just digging down and mining, but the best way is to walk around the overland until you see some jutting out of a cliff side. Look for exposed stone. The coal texture looks like stone but with black specks on it.
In order for coal to appear when you destroy it's brick, you must be using a stone or better pickaxe. To get better metals to appear from hitting their block, you must have the metal below it on your pickaxe. The mineral order is wood, stone, coal, iron, silver, gold, diamond. So, for example, a gold pickaxe will be able to mine stone, coal, iron and silver. If you hit an iron block with a wood pickaxe, nothing will come out.
Coal is absolutely vital to find immediately, as you need torches to mine. The first thing I do when making a new world is trek until I see some coal exposed, then mine it, then establish my first camp/mine nearby.
Also, keep in mind: more precious minerals (iron, silver, gold, diamond) only exist below sea level, so you'll rarely if never see a vein exposed from wandering around the overworld. It must be found in mines or exploring caves.
