An accounting approach must not be restricted to an extension of the formal rules of national economic accounting. “Only a minority of environmental themes can be pressed meaningfully into a linear scheme of opening stocks, flows and closing stocks” (Radermacher). This structured system, at least in its basic mode, works for oil, mineral deposits, and to a degree virgin hardwoods work as well. As Graham Davis states, “The market value of a mineral property is allegedly its option price as a potential source of minerals, rather than its expected NPV [net present value].” Option pricing gives more value to long-life reserves by valuing the potential gains that come from extended management reaction to long-run price movements.

In financial option pricing, the value of an option depends critically on several parameters. First, the more volatile the underlying asset, the more value the option written on that asset. According to Davis, managerial flexibility is worth more for mineral assets with high price volatility, such as with cadmium, which has an annual price change variance of 32 percent, as compared with steel, which has a price change variance of 0.1 percent. Second, financial options that are at- or near-the-money have more value than those well out-of-the-money and unlikely to be exercised prior to expiration. Lastly, an option's value increases in value if the duration until the expiration is lengthened as well.