Annual Mol and Copper Prices, 1900-2011 and the '79 Spike

Courtesy USGS,

The focus here is '79. The cause of the price spike was the Iranian Revolution causing a oil shortage. The response was to expand oil production elsewhere through building new wells, which need molybdenum. Molybdenum demand spikes. On the supply side, the Endako mine went on strike. As with the 2000's spike, the inability to quickly raise production to meet demand is the catalyst for sharp price increases.

Not the most elegant plot, but the level of production increase around '79 is clearly comparable or less than many other years from 1960-1990. Higher resolution data would be nice but annual is all that is available. I doubt in 1920 monthly molybdenum price data was not a key concern.