Yep, and this was the initial benefit of iron despite bronze generally being better - you can find it anywhere, vs needing to source both copper and tin which tended to come from different, far flung places.
But iron won out in the end. It's harder to process, but the result is better.
Bronze has a lower melting point compared to Iron making it much easier to work with. I think you also have to invent charcoal first to reach the temperatures necessary to melt iron ore.
Iron was originally produced without melting it at all. Instead, iron ore was reacted with reduced gases, and a flux (limestone) causes the silicate contaminants to melt instead. The solid iron that's obtained (sponge iron) is then forged into shape (and also beaten to remove residual silicates.)
I googled it, and apparently we still do that, at least for some of the production.
Yes, direct reduced iron (DRI). We may be moving back to it, too, when we move to green hydrogen as the reducing agent.