Green regulations and untapped lithium frustrate EU mining industry

The owner of one of Europe's biggest lithium deposits in Austria says the continent's strict regulations make it difficult for companies to finally start extracting the mineral from EU territory.

"It is quite a strange situation," European Lithium CEO Dietrich Wanke told CGTN. "These inherited hindering mining rules within Central Europe are still in full power hence no project is pretty much in operation so far."

Wanke says Europe's regulations do not favor the financing of mining projects and are making it impossible to find investors on the continent. The roughly $70 million raised so far has all been sourced from overseas.

Currently, Europe has no active mining site and is dependent on imports from overseas to satisfy the booming lithium battery industry. 

Mountain of lithium

It remains to be seen whether the continent's first lithium will come from the Austrian Weinebene deposit or from other project sites in Portugal, the UK or Serbia.

According to estimates by European Lithium, there could be up to 40 million tons of lithium beneath the Weinebene mountain, making it one of the biggest so far discovered deposits in Europe. A treasure the EU desperately needs for its green transition.

"Here you can see the stone, the pegmatite, which contains the lithium inside," site manager Robert Grassler says while walking through the mine tunnels: "We extract it with a drill and blast method."

But after 10 years of exploration drilling, the mine is still not open and running - given the slow permit process.

Environmental concerns

Additionally, the Austrian mine is facing protest from environmentalists - like Anna Leitner who together with her NGO 'Global2000' filed a complaint against the state's latest decision to waive the environmental impact assessment.

"We were really shocked that for such a big project the regional authorities didn't deem necessary the environmental impact assessment," Leitner told CGTN, adding that Global 2000 fears noise, dust and road construction during the mining will result in serious culminated environmental impacts. "Just because it's now a lithium boom we can't just fast-track."

European Lithium, an Australian-based company, says it adheres to the world's strictest exploration rules - and that the extraction of the Weinebene lithium will have minimal effects on surrounding nature.

The lithium in the Austria mine is a "hard rock mineral", Wanke says. "The beneficiation runs through a mechanical process and will not harm or affect or use any ground water. That's a completely different method than it is for example in South America."

Now it's up to a court to decide whether further environmental evaluations are necessary. Wanke hopes to open the mine in two years.