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[DalmoTheDwarf]

I have 3 hematite blocks I bought off a trader but it wont allow me to turn them into ore at the smelter. Is there something I need to do beforehand in order to make them accessible? I have charcoal and it allows me to make pig iron, but it just wont let me "Smelt hematite ore".

Also, on another note.

I have been digging through limestone layers. Down to Z-10 and i'm digging lanes to check for iron bearing ore, but I have yet to find anything. Lots of Spherite and Amehyst but nothing that creates iron. I've just been making long 1 line grids, is it possible i'm missing it, or have I got unlucky and just gotten a place without any iron. I picked a starting location with flux and shallow metals.

Thanks for the help!

[PatrikLundell]

Blocks are not boulders. Blocks are created from boulders (4 blocks out of each bounder). Blocks can be used for building and for construction of buildings that specifically require blocks (such as wells and screw pumps), but not for other purposes, so you're out of luck here.

Sphalerite (there's nothing called spherite) is a zinc ore, and thus provides one metal. If it said metals, i.e. plural, there ought to be at least one other metal ore, and galena (lead + silver) is a vein metal ore that can be found in limestone, so you may simply have missed such veins. There are no metal ores that are found in limestone (this section based on the info found on the wiki http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Galena).

Thus, you probably don't have any iron ores. The DFHack plugin Prospector (called as "prospect") can tell you what's available if you don't mind "cheating" a little. Obviously, that requires you to use DFHack (e.g. with the LNP).

[DalmoTheDwarf]

I see. Thank you. So this being my first fort I am not exactly sure what to do next. Should I abandon it and try to find a fort with iron access? Or should I just wait for a siege to try and melt down the goblinite for iron? Or just keep trading for iron ore or iron items that can be melted down. Without access to iron will I be able to find a sufficient amount via other methods?

Also on a side note, when I change my squads over from inactive to train or something else. Sometimes if they are hauling stone they will carry that stone everywhere they are going. How can I force them to drop it?

[Large Wereroach]

I've only played two games so far in which I've set up the whole metalworking production chain, but I've managed to come by with copper weapons at first and later bought all other metals from the caravans. Iirc you can re-melt some objects to yield more metal than it took forging them (eg large serrated discs iirc), but I've never had to use that on purpose.

[PatrikLundell]

It's perfectly viable to use other weapons grade metals (copper, bronze, silver), and I generally play without native metal, so everything comes as goblinite (with some visitite thrown in, although I don't harvest that on purpose). On the other hand, I generally use traps rather than militia (for mental stability as well as the horrible cleanup).

Trading should work as well, as you'd be able to request items from the mountainhome, and can aim for metal ones.

Yes, it's a pain they'll carry whatever they were hauling rather than drop it. However, they'll drop it when reaching their destination, so when set to train, they'll drop it in the barracks. If you station them and keep changing the location they'll lug the items around until they reach the last destination, though. There's no good way to get them to drop the items.

[anewaname]

I see. Thank you. So this being my first fort I am not exactly sure what to do next. Should I abandon it and try to find a fort with iron access? Or should I just wait for a siege to try and melt down the goblinite for iron? Or just keep trading for iron ore or iron items that can be melted down. Without access to iron will I be able to find a sufficient amount via other methods?

Also on a side note, when I change my squads over from inactive to train or something else. Sometimes if they are hauling stone they will carry that stone everywhere they are going. How can I force them to drop it?

Having a raising gate and a huge hallway full of traps is more important than having iron and steel, especially since this is your first fort.  And with this, I would suggest using cage traps exclusively, since weapon traps will leave mounds of dead goblins and upset the dwarfs who walk through the bloody mess.

[Fleeting Frames]

As you've figured, armor-grade metal is relatively accessible.

What might trouble someone is flux, as you can only import about a handful of each flux type per year. However, you're not that someone, as you have layers of limestone.

Also, if you found sphalerite, back away when seeking iron; you've left the sedimentary territory in favour of metamorphic one.