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	1,509 coins	-51 coins	407 coins	N/A	N/A
Iron ore box	Iron ore	1 × Bronze ore box 2 × Iron bar	18	7,639 coins	3,541 coins	4,533 coins	3,592 coins	4,126 coins
Steel ore box	Coal Silver ore	1 × Iron ore box 2 × Steel bar	29	8,177 coins	1,991 coins	3,633 coins	-1,550 coins	-900 coins
Mithril ore box	Mithril ore	1 × Steel ore box 2 × Mithril bar	37	16,944 coins	8,868 coins	11,024 coins	6,877 coins	7,391 coins
Adamant ore box	Adamantite ore Luminite Gold ore	1 × Mithril ore box 2 × Adamant bar	41	30,108 coins	17,140 coins	19,892 coins	8,272 coins	8,868 coins
Rune ore box	Runite ore	1 × Adamant ore box 2 × Rune bar	55	40,912 coins	21,342 coins	24,846 coins	4,202 coins	4,954 coins
Orikalkum ore box	Orichalcite ore Drakolith	1 × Rune ore box 2 × Orikalkum bar	66	56,539 coins	22,035 coins	26,471 coins	693 coins	1,625 coins
Necronium ore box	Necrite ore Phasmatite	1 × Orikalkum ore box 2 × Necronium bar	72	86,265 coins	34,221 coins	38,897 coins	12,186 coins	12,426 coins
Bane ore box	Banite ore	1 × Necronium ore box 2 × Bane bar	85	121,094 coins	41,586 coins	47,090 coins	7,365 coins	8,193 coins
Elder rune ore box	Light animica Dark animica	1 × Bane ore box 2 × Elder rune bar	95	195,687 coins	88,481 coins	99,791 coins	46,895 coins	52,701 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.