Ore Scrubber

The Ore Scrubber is a building that sanitizes freshly mined materials before they are brought into the colony. It processes newly extracted resources, disinfecting or sterilizing them so that mined material does not introduce biological contamination directly into storage or living areas. The unit’s role is limited to treating recently mined ores and mineral resources prior to those resources entering the colony’s supply chain.

Because the Ore Scrubber acts on freshly mined material, it is used at the boundary between the mining area and the colony proper. Placing an Ore Scrubber where resources first transition from the mine (or from conveyor/tile transfer points that receive raw material) ensures that items entering storage, processing buildings, or high-traffic colony zones have been sanitized. Sources describe the device variously as sanitizing, disinfecting, sterilizing, or otherwise cleaning freshly excavated ores; these descriptions all refer to the same function of preventing unclean mined resources from being conveyed into the colony untreated.

Practical points and interactions:

• The Ore Scrubber’s scope is limited to freshly mined mineral resources; it is not described as a general-purpose cleaning device for arbitrary items already inside the colony.
• Use the scrubber at ingress points for incoming materials so all ore flows into storage and production already sanitized.
• The building’s operation is focused on preventing biological contamination associated with mined resources, so it complements other colony hygiene measures rather than replacing them.
• Placing scrubbers near excavation sites or the first conveyor junctions after a mine reduces the spread of contaminants that could otherwise impact food, water, or dupes.

The Ore Scrubber is an early-to-mid game utility for maintaining a cleaner colony by intercepting and sanitizing raw resources at the moment they are introduced from the environment. Its straightforward purpose is consistent across languages and descriptions: to ensure freshly mined materials are cleaned before they enter the colony.