Elements are going to be VERY useful later on in the mod. You mine the ore and get 1-3 ingots, which you can use, with a few misc items, to make a few different elements. You can also store the ingots in a block. 8 of each element makes a shard, and 4 shards make a gem. You can make the Earth Pickaxe & Fire Sword. Earth Pickaxe starts out with Fortune III, while Fire Sword starts out with Fire Aspect 4! With water, you can make the Water Helmet, which gives you water breathing when you wear it.  With air boots, you get jump boost. With gems, you can make Tier 1 Blocks, which have no use yet,

There is now a second set of Element. You can craft the Level 2 Elemental Ingots, which can be used to make the Second Tier Elements - Ice, Nature, Light, Dark. You can craft those into Shards and then Gems, which make: The Ice Axe (super fast, but low durability), the Dark Sword (starts with efficiency 5 for quick armor destruction), the Light Chestplate (gives you night vision), and the Nature Leggings (which gives you regeneration). If you have a full set of Elemental Armor, you get Haste 2.