Strategic metallic ores are very important to economic development. China's demand to and dependence on metal minerals keep increasing due to its rapid urbanization and industrialization in the last 2-3 decades. Import is an important source of mineral resources for a country. Identifying and evaluating the effect of strategic ores is of great practical significance to ensure their supply security. However, there is no standard method to evaluate the significance of strategic minerals so far. To analyze the supply security challenges and protective measures of the strategic metal ores, this paper evaluates the supply security of 13 strategic metal minerals between 1994 and 2016 in China from two dimensions: the degree of domestic supply security and the degree of supply security for imported resources. The degree of domestic supply security is an index to combine the estimated depletion time and the relative mineral scarcity index based on economic mineable reserves. The degree of supply security for imported resources is an index that is used for evaluating the import safety degree of mineral ores by combing net import reliance and market concentration. Results showed that: 1) the supply security is poor for Cr, Fe, Co and Ni ores. These ores should be paid more attention because the domestic supply of these ores are in short, while the degree of supply security are also poor; 2) the supply security is relatively poor for Sn ores. The domestic supply of this ore is relatively abundant but the degree of supply security has been declining in recent years; 3) the supply security is relatively good for Al, Cu, Zr and Au ores. The domestic supply of these ores are in short but the degree of supply security is relatively good; 4) the supply security is good for Mo, Sb, W and REE ores. The domestic supply of these ores are relatively abundant and the degree of supply security scarcity is relatively good. This paper presents suggestions on limiting export of strategic metallic ores, encouraging import, looking for global cooperation, boosting internal exploration, increasing inputs on mining and processing technologies, producing high added\|value products, improving recycling recovery at each steps, and balancing import sources. This method also applies to other materials, which can provide references for China to evaluate supply security of strategic metallic ores.