Oh ho hooon.... Zat chest may actually be bugged or not.. I dunno. I just went back to get the handle with all the crystals in a crate cause I wanted to explore and see if the crystals did anything.
Found a new tin ingot, a mitril ingot, and handle (after opening the chest a new, and they seemed to "spawn" after it was open cause I didn't see white and red peeking through.
I can see how it could be intentional - A small little gift for those who explored and roughed the pain and a half it takes to get to it.... but I dun think its really supposed to be as I've found it.