Nether Ores

'''This mod has been reported to be bugged, therefore some servers may not have the mod installed. This occurs because the mod was compiled with JDK 7. Install Java 7 if you want to use this mod for your server.'''

Nether Ores is a mod which spawns new blocks in the Nether. These blocks are the netherrack-encased ores which are the equivalent of the Overworld ores. It has IC2 support. However, it has been suspected of altering the spawn rate of ghasts.

These ores can make you quite rich, but beware, the zombie pigmen don't take too kindly to people stealing their resources (or you remodeling your house), and they will become hostile if they are near you when you mine them. If there are no zombie pigmen near you, each pigman from then until you leave the nether will have a chance of being hostile to you. Obviously retaliation will make all nearby pigmen hostile as well.

Ages of being exposed to the hostile environment of the Nether have left these ores somewhat unstable; sometimes they explode (after a short delay) when you mine them, touch them, step on them, or when exposed to fire, other explosions and on rare cases, spontaneously combust when exposed to air. Because of their explosive nature on collision with the player, it is best to watch your step when traversing the nether. There is also a great danger of falling into lava because of the strange land and sudden drops in the nether. The Mining Laser is a good semi-endgame tool to use when mining these ores, because they are given less time to "realize" that they are being mined. It might help to mine them with an E.E. Red Morning Star, which will harvest a group of ores with one right click, the cost is high in order to craft it. (A cheaper alternative would be Nova Cataclysm since they don't harm you and you would be away from the exploding nether ores. Recommended to place at level 6)

Once you harvest one of these, you can either smelt it in any furnace or put it into a Macerator. Nether iron ore gets you an iron ingot, nether redstone gets you redstone dust, etc. However, a Macerator will give you two coal, copper ore, tin ore, or diamonds for one of their respective nether ores. It is also supposed to give four iron dust or gold dust for a nether iron ore or nether gold ore, and the dust can then be smelted into ingots.

Note: The Nether Diamond Ore seems to be much more common than in the overworld. Since a Diamond tipped Mining Drill mines through netherack virtually instantly, bringing one of those, a LapPack, and a Tier 3 Divining Rod will yield an extremely large number of Diamond ores - each of which can be macerated into two diamonds. Even a short 5-10 minute trip can easily yield over a stack of diamonds. An Alchemy Bag or Ender Pouch is strongly recommended, due to exploding ores. Also note that using a Black Hole Band in conjunction with an Alchemy bag will allow you to mine ores from the edge of your reach - out of range of the explosion - but still able to pick up the ores.

This is arguably a better method of gaining EMC materials than using a Black hole band, Alchemy Bag, and a Jetpack to easily collect a large amount of glowstone.

Efficiency
The following table compares the efficiency of the ore between macerating and putting through a Red Matter Furnace.

Note: The only positive of the RM Furnace is faster speed and no EU usage.

Depth ranges
The following is an output table for what depth ranges you may find Nether Ore -

Bugs
Nether Iron and Nether Gold will not work in a Macerator in SMP.

Trivia
When mining Nether Ores with a Mining Laser, or Destruction Catalyst Zombie Pigmen won't become aggressive. (Tested in both SMP and SSP.)

Unlike normal ores, nether ores can be destroyed by Ghast fireballs.

Nether Ores mined by Miners, Quarries, Block Breakers or Mining Turtles also have a chance to explode, but not trigger the wrath of Zombie Pigmen. A Mining Turtle can be "killed" - turned into a floating entity or destroyed outright - by a Nether Ore explosion.

Unlike overworld Coal Ores, Nether Coal cannot mined be with a Wood or Gold Pickaxe.

Nether Ores still explode when using a Destruction Catalyst