Non-metallurgist would like to explore scavenging / smelting on a hobby scale, questions and advice.

Hope this is the right subreddit!

I'm coming at this from a curious onlooker / hobbyist perspective.

I'd like to try melting my own ore and collecting purified metals from them on a small scale. I may even do it just once to satisfy my curiosity.

A friend showed me a rock he had be given that contained copper. And from what we have figured out, back in the day (way back), you could just put a bunch of these rocks in a fire and go to bed, when you woke up, there would be copper!

I know it's a bit more tricky, but all summer I'm down by a river with dog and I'm always finding weird rocks that look like they contain iron or are old slag.

What would I need for a simple hobbyist set-up to try this out?