Ingots and gems in Baldur's Gate 3 are mostly useless and should be sold to vendors for their gold value. There are a few exceptions, such as Infernal Iron needed for Karlach's quest and Mithral Ore for crafting rare gear at the Adamantine forge. While the game hints at the possibility of a crafting system, there is no way to use ingots or gems for anything other than selling them, so players should not hold onto them.

Although Baldur's Gate 3 has a wide variety of items, not all of them will be vital parts of a playthrough, but it can often be hard to know what to hold onto. Ingots and gems are common finds in BG3, which may set up the expectation that they'll be used in some kind of crafting system, either through the game's own Combine function or through one of the many blacksmith NPCs such as Dammon.