Copper in Devon - follow up

I wrote about the unforeseen collapse of the copper industry in Devon in a recent blog.  Obviously I am not the only person who has been thinking about the way that external factors can affect a large industry, or even an economy.  I was listening to the BBC radio programme ("More or Less") about mathematics and statistics and heard Nassim Taleb explaining his concept of anti-fragility and the black swan.  (According to Wikipedia: He advocates what he calls a "black swan robust" society, meaning a society that can withstand difficult-to-predict events. He proposes "antifragility" in systems, that is, an ability to benefit and grow from random events, errors, and volatility.)

Although it might have been difficult for the copper mine owners to find ways of benefiting from the development of new sources of copper ore, perhaps there were ways that their industry could have been made anti-fragile.  And would OR have helped do so?