What is an ore boulder?
1,800 ore
1,800 ore per boulder
One ore boulder gives 1,800 of its ore. It is not infinite: once mined out, the boulder breaks and disappears.
Mine it with drills
Place a Drill or Crude Drill facing the boulder and power it. Pickaxes cannot mine boulders.
8 drills
Up to 8 drills
Two per side on all four sides, so 8 at most. More drills mine faster, but each drill yields less.
Ore boulder types and where they spawn
There are 10 ore boulders, one for each metal ore. On the map they look like a solid-colored 2×2 square.
| Ore boulder | Ore | Where it spawns (how often) |
|---|---|---|
 Copper Ore Boulder |  Copper Ore | The Undergrounds (rare), The Clay Caves (rare), The Forgotten Ruins (rare), Azeos' Wilderness (very rare), The Desert of Beginnings (extremely rare) |
 Tin Ore Boulder |  Tin Ore | The Clay Caves (rare), Azeos' Wilderness (very rare), The Desert of Beginnings (extremely rare) |
 Iron Ore Boulder |  Iron Ore | The Forgotten Ruins (rare), Azeos' Wilderness (very rare), The Desert of Beginnings (extremely rare) |
 Gold Ore Boulder |  Gold Ore | The Clay Caves (rare), The Forgotten Ruins (rare), Azeos' Wilderness (very rare), The Desert of Beginnings (extremely rare) |
 Scarlet Ore Boulder |  Scarlet Ore | Azeos' Wilderness (rare) |
 Octarine Ore Boulder |  Octarine Ore | The Sunken Sea (rare) |
 Galaxite Ore Boulder |  Galaxite Ore | The Desert of Beginnings (very rare) |
 Solarite Ore Boulder |  Solarite Ore | The Shimmering Frontier (rare) |
 Pandorium Ore Boulder |  Pandorium Ore | The Passage (rare) |
 Relucite Ore Boulder |  Relucite Ore | Breaker's Reach |
How to mine an ore boulder (drill setup)
- Place a drill facing the boulder: any side of the boulder works.
- Connect power: run Electrical Wire from an Electricity Generator. The boulder shakes and makes a clinking sound when it is being mined.
- Check where the ore comes out: ore that drops into the drill comes out of the back of the drill.
- Collect it: move ore with a Conveyor Belt and put it into a chest or smelter with a Robot Arm. If the collection line backs up, adding drills does nothing.
The first ore comes a little sooner (after 481 damage, then one every 7,200 damage). If the power stops, mining simply pauses; the boulder's health does not regenerate.
Drill count and mining speed (ore per minute, time to deplete)
| Drill | Drills | Ore per minute | Time to deplete |
|---|---|---|---|
 Drill | 1 | 0.44 | 68.7 h |
| Drill | 2 | 0.79–0.80 | 37.4–37.8 h |
| Drill | 4 | 1.33–1.35 | 22.2–22.5 h |
| Drill | 8 | 1.91 | 15.8 h |
 Crude Drill | 1 | 0.23 | 130.4 h |
| Crude Drill | 2 | 0.44 | 67.5–68.7 h |
| Crude Drill | 4 | 0.79 | 37.8 h |
| Crude Drill | 8 | 1.33 | 22.5 h |
- Even 8 drills only produce about 1.9 ore per minute, and it takes about 16 hours to mine a boulder out. With one drill it takes about 69 hours.
- Output per drill drops as you add more: 0.44/min with one drill, 0.24/min each with eight. If you have spare drills, spreading them over several boulders gives more ore in total.
- The Crude Drill works at about half the speed of the Drill.
Estimates calculated from the game data (version 1.3.0.6, default speed on Windows). Ranges reflect differences in drill placement.
Are ore boulders infinite?
No. Each boulder gives 1,800 ore, then breaks and disappears. The drill type and number only change the speed, not the total.
To keep collecting the same ore, look for the next 2×2 square on the map and move your drills there. You can also mine ore veins in walls; see the list of ores for where each one is found.
Smelting ore into bars (Furnace, Smelter Kiln, Fury Forge)
| Station | Ores it smelts |
|---|---|
 Furnace | Copper, tin, iron |
 Smelter Kiln | Gold, scarlet, octarine |
 Fury Forge | Galaxite, solarite, pandorium, relucite |
Feed ore in with one robot arm and take bars out to a chest with another, and smelting is fully automatic too (ore automation).
Mechanics from the Core Keeper Wiki (Fandom) pages "Ore boulder", "Drill", "Crude Drill" (CC BY-SA 3.0), summarized in our own words (not confirmed in the game files).
Unless a note on the page says otherwise, numbers are read from the game files of Core Keeper 1.3.0.6 (prefabs, configuration files, drop tables and the game's program) and calculated by this site, including upgraded (per-level) values, sell prices and mana costs. Names and descriptions are the game's official English text. Only reinforcing materials, minion and pet attacks and some food values are based on the Core Keeper Wiki (Fandom) data (CC BY-SA 3.0). Core Keeper and its images are © Pugstorm. This is an unofficial fan site.