A Complete 2024 Guide to the Runescape Ore Box

Have you found yourself in a situation where you’re always making more trips to the bank while mining? And whenever you glance at other Runescape players around you, they seem to be mining for longer periods at a time than you. What is going on?

Here’s the trick revealed – they’re most likely storing their ores in an ore box. That’s how players are staying longer at the rocks these days, and mining more ores at a go.

What is an ore box?

An ore box was first released to Runescape back in 2019 under the Mining & Smithing rework. This container’s main aim is to provide players an easier time while mining. Instead of running back and forth between the rocks and the bank, the player can now stay for longer periods while mining rocks.

And it does so by allowing the player to store the ores, up to 140, in an ore box – which only takes up 1 inventory space. Gone are the days where you have to constantly drop your ores while training your mining skill.

How to use an ore box?

Using an ore box in Runescape is simple, and designed as such. It is truly a must-have item while you are mining.

Using an ore box while mining

Having an ore box in your inventory along with a full inventory of ores, simply left click the ore box. This causes all the ores in your inventory to move into the ore box instantly.

To make things even easier, you can add your ore box to your action bar – and clicking it from there frees up your mouse to continue mining. In a way, by tapping on the associated action bar key, it is almost like auto-filling your ore box.

An ore box works for both noted and unnoted ores. You can also choose which ores you’d specifically want to fill the ore box with, by using that particular ore with the ore box.

At any time while mining should you wish to know what is in your ore box, simply hover your mouse over it. A tooltip will then pop up, showing the ore contents in your ore box, sorted by the lowest ore tier to the highest ore tier.

Storing 100 gold & silver ores into an ore box

Storing silver and gold ores into an ore box (and the metal bank) require the completion of the member-only ‘Family Crest’ quest. Once this quest is completed, the player retains the ability to store gold & silver ores into his ore box even without his membership.

Players can only store a maximum of 100 gold & silver ores into his ore box. This capacity does not increase through increasing one’s mining levels, or by completing the ‘Everything is Oresome’ achievement.

Depositing your ores from an ore box

You cannot empty an ore box into your inventory. In order to deposit the ores in your ore box, you have to be at a bank, a deposit box, or a metal bank.

At the bank, you can empty the ores in your ore box by clicking the ‘Empty’ option. Alternatively, you can choose to place your entire ore box into the bank itself. This would cause all the ores in your ore box to be emptied out. If your bank is short on space, the remaining ores will not be emptied, and instead, be left in the ore box.

At a metal bank, you’d have to select the ‘Deposit-All’ option. The ores then get transferred from your ore box and into your metal bank.

At a deposit box, you’d have to use your ore box on the deposit box to empty the ores out. This method allows you to resume mining very quickly without opening any banking interface.

The capacity of an ore box: How to increase it

Each ore box originally allows a player to store 100 for each type of ore. It goes to 120 for some ores when you’ve achieved a certain mining level. And it further expands to 140 when the player completes the ‘Everything is Oresome’ achievement.

To store higher tier ores, you need to possess an ore box of that tier. For example, to store 100 Mithril ores, you need minimally a Mithril ore box. Having an Adamant ore box with you will allow you to store 100 Mithril ores, 100 Adamant ores, and 100 ores of tiers lower than Adamant.

The highest tier ore box in Runescape is the Elder Rune ore box. This ore box allows you to store 100 (it can eventually be increased to a maximum of 140 through meeting some requirements) of every tier of ore available in the game.

Can I use more than 1 ore box?

No – you can only use 1 ore box at a time. And attempting to fill an ore box while carrying 2 or more ore boxes at a time will cause the player to exclaim: “I can’t hold all these ore boxes!”, with no ore being added to any box.

How to increase my ore box’s capacity?

To increase your ore box’s capacity from 100 to 120, you’d have to hit a certain mining level. The mining level to hit increases as the ores tier up. Refer to the table below for the mining level you need for increasing the storage capacity.

Using methods (God banners, Lava titans, Desert wyrms, Void ravangers, Obsidian golems, Stoneberries, Dwarven stouts & Mature Dwarven stouts) to temporarily increase your mining skill level will allow your ore box to subsequently increase in storage capacity.

Everything is Oresome achivement

The final increment of your ore box’s capacity from 120 to 140 happens when you accomplish the ‘Everything is Oresome’ achievement.

To complete this achievement, the player needs to mine 100 of the ores listed below. Once completed, this achievement will be marked as completed in the player’s Achievements page. The player’s ore box will also have its ore storage capacity expanded by 20 for all ores.

Creating an ore box

Using ores and bars as raw materials, an ore box can be created through the Smithing skill at an anvil. The Smithing requirements (in terms of Smithing levels and ingredients) needed to create higher tier ore boxes get higher.

The easiest ore box to create would be the Bronze ore box, at level 1 Smithing. It uses 2 Bronze bars and grants 30 xp.

Refer to the table below for the exact Smithing requirements when creating ore boxes.

Moneymaking guide with the ore box

A good way to training your character’s smithing levels all while making money, would be to create and sell ore boxes. Depending on the type of ore box, the profit you can get per box ranges from as low as 2600 coins to 48000 coins.

The strategy entails buying the previous tier ore box, along with the bars required to create the next higher tier ore box. All the bars that are bought, can be deposited to the metal bank at a forge or anvil in its noted form.

While smithing the ore boxes, the bars required are then used directly from the metal bank, without the need to withdraw to the player’s inventory first. This speeds up creation of the ore boxes.

1. Purchase ore boxes (1 tier lower that what you intend to smith), and 2 x metal bars of the next tier.
2. Deposit all the metal bars in its noted form to your metal bank.
3. Head to either Varrock West or Lumbridge training area. These 2 locations have the closest anvil to a bank.
4. Fill your inventory with only all ore boxes, and click the smith option at the anvil.
5. Smith all ore boxes in your inventory to the next higher tier ore box.
6. Empty your inventory at the bank, and repeat steps 4 to 6.

Getting an ore box

If Smithing your own ore box isn’t your cup of tea, fret not – you can buy an ore box off the Grand Exchange, albeit at a cost.

Dying in the Wilderness with an ore box

If a player dies in the Wilderness with an ore box (of any tier), if unprotected, the ore box and all the ores in it will be dropped on the ground for the killer to pick up. Should the player choose to protect their ore box, all the ores will be dropped on the ground, while the ore box be kept on death.