Economics literature on joint production of minerals: A survey

Processes which produce more than one output jointly are common across a host of industries and play a notable role in mineral supply. Many important commodities including oil and gas, copper and gold, or iron and rare earth elements, are produced together as joint products. Despite its prevalence, joint production has received only minor explicit treatment in the literature on mineral economics. This paper surveys and categorizes the mineral economics literature to highlight notable works and gaps that deserve the attention of future researchers. A key finding of the survey is that little unifying and empirically tested theory explains the behavior of multi-product firms or markets. However, several studies have found that unimportant joint products, sometimes called by-products, tend to be more available in an economic or physical sense than conventional wisdom may hold. Finally, literature on agriculture and fishing economics are provided as an example of how mineral economics might be better integrated into the economics discipline as a whole.