Ever wonder why it goes bronze age and then iron age? It's because it's a minor miracle humanity discovered how to smelt iron. Iron requires temperatures higher than you can achieve with just wood. Iron absorbs carbon and sulfur making it worthless (in the wrong mixtures).

The process is complex and resource intensive.

Assuming a bronze age civilization, copper or tin is the best you can hope for. Finding a magnet is going to be difficult because there's not really ferromagnetic materials available. In the modern era the most common material is iron.