So the only way that could be happening, is if there is a recipe in the game defined as "bronze-plate", which is unlikely, because most of the recipes Bob has are called something like "bronze-metal-mixing-copper" or something more descriptive, since he usually has multiple ways to create the same alloy.
At least, I'm preeetty sure that's what happened. The only other explanation is that something breaks in the logic of the reverse recipe, but only with bronze plate (which would be even more unlikely)
I'll have to take a closer look to know for sure, shouldn't take long as I have a long weekend off.