UO Second Age

Hello,
I am new to mining and quite new to the game.
If someone is willing to share a mining house with you, can you do the following:

(1) store 5000+ raw ores in the house for smelting only when your mining is very high? Will the ores decay?
(2) Lead multiple pack horses so you can retame them the next time you log in.

1) Smelt your ore 1 at a time and you can gain mining skill by doing that.

2) You could do that but you'd probably lose them to inactivity or someone killing them from outside.

And ore won't decay on the floor of a house.