Ore Processing Machines: Crushers, Ball Mills, and Gravity Separators
Ore processing in Immersive Geology relies on three machines that break raw ore down step by step: the Crusher, the Ballmill, and the Gravity Separator. Each handles a different stage, turning chunks of rock into progressively cleaner and finer material.
The Crusher
The Crusher is the first stage of the chain. It takes ore blocks and reduces them to dirty crushed ore. Its recipe list is the largest of the three machines, with 201 recipes. Any ore quality works as input — normal, poor, or rich ore all produce the same dirty crushed output for a given material. For example, normal_ore_acanthite, poor_ore_acanthite, and rich_ore_acanthite all convert into dirty_crushed_ore_acanthite. The same pattern holds across materials such as alumina, anatase, apatite, bauxite, cassiterite, chalcocite, and chalcopyrite.
The Gravity Separator
The Gravity Separator is a multiblock machine whose job is separating rock from ore. It is mainly used to clean dirty crushed ore, and it does so without any loss of material. It has 56 recipes, and a typical example is dirty_crushed_ore_acanthite becoming crushed_ore_acanthite.
This machine has strict input and output rules that set it apart from most processing blocks.
- Water goes in through the top. The machine will not run without it.
- Items must be dropped in from the exposed sides. Hoppers and direct item interfaces are not accepted.
- Outputs leave through the bottom sides. If a valid inventory sits there, items go into it; otherwise they drop into the world.
Running a Gravity Separator nonstop requires a reliable water supply. To keep performance steady and avoid interruptions, dedicate at least one Pump to each machine and keep a water buffer on hand.
The Ballmill
The Ballmill takes the output of the earlier stages and grinds it finer. It has 63 recipes, and it accepts two kinds of input for each material: crushed ore and grit. Both paths lead to the same powder. Examples include crushed_ore_acanthite and grit_acanthite both turning into powder_acanthite, and the same for alumina, anatase, apatite, bauxite, cassiterite, chalcocite, chromite, cryolite, cuprite, fluorite, and galena.
The Industrial Ball Mill
The Industrial Ball Mill is a multiblock version built for grinding ores and grits into finer materials. It helps extract valuable minerals and improves processing efficiency overall.
Its layout is straightforward once you know the sides:
- Insert items from the left side.
- Collect outputs from the front.
Because it can handle bulk quantities in a single pass, the Industrial Ball Mill suits large-scale ore refinement setups where feeding one item at a time would be too slow.
Putting the Chain Together
A full processing line moves material in one direction. Ore goes into the Crusher and comes out dirty. The Gravity Separator washes that dirty crushed ore into clean crushed ore, provided water is flowing and items are dropped in from the sides rather than piped through hoppers. From there, the Ballmill or Industrial Ball Mill grinds the crushed ore — or grit from other sources — into powder. Plan your water supply and output inventories around the Gravity Separator first, since it is the one machine in the chain with unusual input rules.
Covers the mod’s in-game guide topics: Industrial Ball Mill Ballmill Crusher Gravity Separator Gravity Separator Pelletizer