On July 4th at 9:05 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON
Vienna (OTS) – Lithium, cobalt, graphite or germanium – these are just some of the raw materials that are necessary to implement the energy transition. But they are hardly being dismantled in the EU. That is why we are almost entirely dependent on imports of raw materials from China, Africa or South America. This is set to change in 2030. The EU has set itself the goal that ten percent of the consumption of a total of 34 so-called “critical raw materials” must be mined itself. An ambitious goal. Alfred Schwarzenberger was traveling throughout Austria for the “Am Schauplatz” report “Golddigger Mood” – shown on Thursday, July 4th, 2024, at 9:05 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON – and deals with the question of what the current plans for a resource-rich country like Austria could mean.
“Austria is rich in poor deposits” – that is the sentence that was heard most often during the filming of “Am Schauplatz”. For the first time by the deposit geologist at the Montan University in Leoben Univ.-Prof. Dr. Frank Melcher: “We have around 6,000 different deposits of mineral raw materials and metals in Austria. Many of these have been mined in the past, but there is still a lot of undiscovered potential.”
The deposits are rather small compared to those in Africa, for example, and therefore not economical. But if the EU takes its own projects seriously and there is an increase in raw material prices, they may have to be used, experts say.
Since 2011, an Australian exploration company has been working on mining lithium near Wolfsberg. It is very difficult to open a mining operation in Austria under the current regulations, explains Dietrich Wanke, Austrian boss of the mining company. “Even if we have a very lucrative deposit here in Wolfsberg, it is very difficult to get capital for mining projects in Europe.” A few hundred million euros are still needed to start the project, he says. Mining is as important as agriculture. According to the experts, a society cannot function without food any more than without raw materials. But the understanding of this has been lost.