As much as I chirp about the game being grindy, inconvenient, and time wasting for the sake of being "brutal" and "hardcore", I do enjoy the rule of no metal through portals. It makes voyages have a purpose and there's nothing quite like the thrill of a whole cargo hold full of metal sailing back to your base.

I do think that metal bars should weigh half as much as ore though since the impurities have been smelted away. This would make it set up a small camp near your ores and smelt while mining.