Essentially, when you start with Lignumis and Exotic Space Industries, the technology to unlock Copper & Iron processing is locked behind Electricity Age & Computer Age technology packs. But you can't actually unlock & produce those without copper & iron, that you can't process.

This is still the case. I also cant smelt any gold which halts the progress really early.

With just these two mods it's not the case. Can you send me a savegame via Discord?

Will do, my name there is Townsie