What Is “Mineral Security” and What Policies Are Needed to Achieve It? Lessons from Oil

Research showed that the economically efficient size of the SPR depended in a systematic way on private-sector expectations of the severity and persistence of oil price shocks, as well as the economic vulnerability of the economy to those shocks. [...] Economically efficient drawdown of the SPR in turn would depend on the same expectations and on the size of the reserve (Murphy et al. [...] However, much of the effort for these changes will need to come from market participants themselves, as was the case in the evolution of the global oil market. [...] What Is “Mineral Security” and What Policies Are Needed to Achieve It? Lessons from Oil Security 9 Another important point inspired by the oil security case is the opportunity to improve the efficiency of materials use and increase the flexibility of demand. [...] Concluding Remarks Sound CM security policy requires clarifying the different circumstances and risks for different minerals, weighing the seriousness of the risks, and evaluating the economic costs of alternative approaches for reducing risks relative to the potential benefits.