Lithium from the Lavanttal? Australians sense big business in Carinthia – economy

A black tunnel leads into the mountain in the middle of a snow-covered slope. Dietrich Wanke pushes the grating in front of the entrance aside and looks into the darkness. There, inside the Carinthian Koralpe, one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe is said to be – that rare metal that the world urgently needs: for electric cars, for smartphones, for storage batteries. And Wanke, who was born in Germany, came to Austria to recover the treasure.