Ore box

An elder rune ore box

Ore boxes are items that store metal ores. Initially, they can store up to 100 of each ore, increased by 20 for certain ores at certain Mining levels (see table below). Completing the Everything Is Oresome achievement (90 Mining required, boostable) also increases storage by 20 for all ores, allowing up to 140 to be stored. These two effects are independent of each other.

Gold and silver ores can only be stored after completing the Family Crest quest and are not subject to storage increases, but are rather always limited to 100 ores each. If a player completed the quest whilst a member, they are still able to store gold and silver without membership.

The ore boxes can be made at an anvil.

Mechanics

The ore box's left-click option, "fill", fills the box with all ores in the player's inventory. Ores (including noted ores) can also be individually used on the box to fill it with all ore of that type. A mouse-over tooltip is displayed showing the contents of the ore box sorted from the lowest to the highest tier. The ore box can be added to the action bar, and clicking it there allows filling of the box without interrupting mining.

The ore box cannot be emptied into a player's inventory. Once filled it can only be emptied into a bank, deposit box or metal bank. The "Deposit-All" option in the metal bank empties the ore box as well as having an "empty" option that works in the bank interface. With deposit boxes, the ore box must be used on it to deposit the contents without banking the ore box, as the empty option does not exist in the deposit box interface, but this does allow the player to return to mining. Simply placing an ore box into the bank also empties the box, placing all the ores stored within it into the bank. If there isn't enough space in the bank, the ore(s) will stay in the box while banked.

Ore boxes share storage between them, so there is no use in owning multiple boxes. The player cannot fill the ore box while carrying more than one of them in their inventory. Attempting to fill the ore box whilst carrying several of them simply results in the player character exclaiming "I can't hold all these ore boxes!", with no ore being added to the box.

A temporary boost in Mining level can increase the capacity temporarily.

Dying in the Wilderness with an ore box of any tier, if unprotected, will result in the box and all ores contained within dropping on the ground for the killer. If the player protects their ore box, any ores contained within the ore box will be dropped on the ground for the killer; however, the ore box will be kept.

If the inventory is filled by mining while carrying the ore box, the game displays a message that the player could fill the box, even if the material mined cannot be stored there (such as when the box is already full).

Types of ore boxes

Ore box	Highest tier of ore storable	Ingredients	Mining level for storage increase	GE price	Profit of creation (From scratch - bars)	Profit of creation (From scratch - ores)	Profit of creation (Prior Ore box + bars)	Profit of creation (Prior ore box + ores)
Bronze ore box	Copper ore Tin ore	2 × Bronze bar	7	1,301 coins	-363 coins	397 coins	N/A	N/A
Iron ore box	Iron ore	1 × Bronze ore box 2 × Iron bar	18	5,841 coins	1,445 coins	2,941 coins	1,808 coins	2,544 coins
Steel ore box	Coal Silver ore	1 × Iron ore box 2 × Steel bar	29	8,270 coins	1,638 coins	4,006 coins	193 coins	1,065 coins
Mithril ore box	Mithril ore	1 × Steel ore box 2 × Mithril bar	37	16,037 coins	7,451 coins	10,593 coins	5,813 coins	6,587 coins
Adamant ore box	Adamantite ore Luminite Gold ore	1 × Mithril ore box 2 × Adamant bar	41	30,162 coins	15,328 coins	20,798 coins	7,877 coins	10,205 coins
Rune ore box	Runite ore	1 × Adamant ore box 2 × Rune bar	55	44,802 coins	21,746 coins	28,346 coins	6,418 coins	7,548 coins
Orikalkum ore box	Orichalcite ore Drakolith	1 × Rune ore box 2 × Orikalkum bar	66	51,136 coins	14,396 coins	22,616 coins	-7,350 coins	-5,730 coins
Necronium ore box	Necrite ore Phasmatite	1 × Orikalkum ore box 2 × Necronium bar	72	77,411 coins	21,897 coins	31,913 coins	7,501 coins	9,297 coins
Bane ore box	Banite ore	1 × Necronium ore box 2 × Bane bar	85	115,187 coins	38,233 coins	48,633 coins	16,336 coins	16,720 coins
Elder rune ore box	Light animica Dark animica	1 × Bane ore box 2 × Elder rune bar	95	192,803 coins	86,913 coins	105,587 coins	48,680 coins	56,954 coins

Update history

The update history project is a work-in-progress – not all updates to this topic may be covered below. See here for how to help out!

• patch 11 January 2021 (Update):
  • You'll no longer receive popup messages regarding deposits in the ore box when smelting gold or silver before completing Family Crest.

• patch 15 June 2020 (Update):
  • Fixed an issue that would cause the 'Inspect' option on ore boxes to cut off words if the chat character limit was reached.

• patch 24 February 2020 (Update):
  • Fixed an issue in which the contents of an ore box was being deposited into a player's inventory if the box had previously been placed into a full bank upon death.

• patch 22 July 2019 (Update):
  • The Ore Box tooltip has been adjusted to stop visual clipping when using a large variety of ores.

• patch 18 February 2019 (Update):
  • An ore box can now be used on a deposit box, in a similar fashion to a (spirit) gem bag or coal bag, to empty the ore box's contents into your bank without depositing the ore box.

• patch 14 January 2019 (Update):
  • It is now no longer possible to fill ore boxes when you have multiple of them on you.

• patch 4 February 2019 (Update):
  • No longer autofill noted ores - you can still use the noted ores on the ore box to store them if you wish.

• patch 28 January 2019 (Update):
  • There is now a warning when attempting to alch or disassemble them.
  • Smithing and ore boxes are no longer allowed in New Varrock.

• patch 21 January 2019 (Update):
  • Players will no longer be able to remove pickaxes from their toolbelts while in New Varrock.

• patch 7 January 2019 (Update):
  • You can make an ore box using the smithing skill. Depending on its upgrade level, it can store up to 100 of each ore.

• update 7 January 2019 (Update):
  • Added to game.

Trivia

• Ore stored in ore boxes are not counted towards carried weight of the player.
• The value of ores stored in an ore box is not counted by the Wealth evaluator.