No metal ore showing in inventory despite a bit of copper ore lying about and in storage.

is it because of this?

specifically

On 11/4/2019 at 5:07 AM, Siromatik said:

Check your currents constructions orders, looks like you've build some with [...] and the material is now reserved.

Edited November 6, 2019 by thewreckedangle

"I simply logged in and noticed it happened."  When you first load a game, it starts out paused.  During the load, each grid block is read from the save, but calculations aren't run.  So it has no idea if you can actually ACCESS the materials.  Unpause for a bit and see if your accessible materials populate as the pathfinding algorithms run.

If it still isn't availble, then try hovering over the resource from the list to see if you have any that isn't allocated.  Try clicking on the resource to discover where its at.  Then check to see that it is in a place your dupes can get to.

Spoiler

Each click will take you to another location with that resource.