Administrative Discretion in the Management of Outer Continental Shelf Minerals
Hoagland, P.
In: Farrow. R.S. (ed.), Managing the Outer Continental Shelf Lands: Oceans of Controversy. Ocean Policy Studies, 18 pp., 1991 WHOI-R-91-003
Mineral developers face varying kinds of risks and uncertainties associated with the exploration, development, and production of minerals from a marine deposit. These risks can be geologic (e.g., ore grade), environmental (e.g., storm frequency), or legal (e.g., lease suspension). To the miner, these types of risks all have the same result: they raise the private costs of proving- out and working a deposit. Both geologic and environmental risks could be reduced through exploration and meteorological forecasting. This publication is concerned with the special case of legal risks arising from administrative discretion by a resource manager over the rights to work publicly controlled ocean minerals.