refining ore - when should I stop?

[snuggleform]

In my latest playthrough I decided to experiment with rushing a metal refinery and refining everything, but then I shortly found out that I ran quickly out of copper ore to make even the most basic things like pneumatic doors.

Is it recommended to not smelt copper ore -> copper except for absolutely bare minimum atmo suit requirement? Should I always refine iron ore to iron and iron to steel? How about gold amalgam to gold?

[SKull]

I would stop with copper at something like 8-12 tons. That's enough for me to upgrade wires, build the docks I need etc.
Then I start up again with gold/iron until I can get smooth ranching going. I then keep feeding them everything except copper. I try to keep a few tons of copper lying around just in case.

[L37]

Do not smelt it unless you need it right now (+small reserve).
Refinery is usefull tool for heat generation later on, ores are essentially non-renewable (you can get some from space, but it is slow). And you need ores to build stuff unless you have enough steel to build everything from it.
There is also a bunch of lead in oil biome now - easy way to get refined metal for pipes, tiles and wires without using all the power and dupe time on refinery.
I use rock crusher to get suites and docks, refinery to produce steel and may be some gold, smelting everything else is a waste of time/resources IMO.

[Cotaks]

" ores are essentially non-renewable"
depends if you got those copper/iron/gold volcano's

at start just take the rock crusher, make 40 copper ore to copper should take care of your early needs. atleast it does for me.

[Athor]

Originally posted by Cotaks:

" ores are essentially non-renewable"
depends if you got those copper/iron/gold volcano's

at start just take the rock crusher, make 40 copper ore to copper should take care of your early needs. atleast it does for me.

Volcanoes are only for refined metal.