@BRProject I do object to your denigration of my former home country - and your accusation about the local mayor is spurious and unprofessional!
It is European Lithium and its management team who have not been dealing in a professional manner with this supposed 'mine' from the start!
I am absolutely certain, it was intended as a bargain buy to be flipped over for a profit - real quick. Well, management found things are different in Europe than somewhere on the West coast of Africa.
I don't know the mayor, and I have not followed in detail what was/is going on with this proposed mine, which I originally thought was a wonderful deal and I had made a small investment, which I quickly retrieved at a loss, when i came to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that 'games are being played'.
I have been in that area as a 6-year old - and know how beautiful it is - so environmental concerns by the locals are very real.
.... and I have read the Austrian papers from time to time, both the local one (Unterkärntner Nachrichten and 'The Standard' a national paper) and I rang my hosts from long ago, had kept in touch with them over the years, one of their daughters and her husband visited here some time ago - (they fell in love with Australia, have decorated their home with wonderful photographs of our outback!)
Reading these papers from time to time in my native German, and not just between the lines; there seems to be an acceptance that yes, this mine contains Lithium (proven!), but what are these foreigners doing, initially proposing wonderful things for the locals, including jobs etc. - and yet so little progress was achieved over so many years. Of course, all the necessary processes for permits, have been slow to be applied for, or to be given (but they will, eventually) -
what the Austrians are now asking is this:
"Are we going to let a foreigner mine our precious resource, and the material then to be shipped to Saudi Arabia for further treatment, thus depriving us locals of the work we were initially promised?"
, and
"how do we know that the final product will be sold to Europe/Austria/Germany etc. when the Saudis have control over the end product?" (the so-called deal EUR have with BMW is just word of mouth - just a promise!)
There is the not-so small matter of the Austrian government, who, in the 90s have literally 'given away' this mine to the Kärntner Montan Society for the princely sum of 1 Schilling (or maybe Dollar) who in turn sold it to a foreign (Australian) company for $10 Million - the people responsible for this 'deal' are still around and it could reflect really badly on them or the party they represent, if this old story gets aired again - and it will!
The mayor of Frantschach is an elected person, he represents the sentiment of the majority there. The locals have a flourishing community, are intelligent people, active in all professions not just farming, have great hobbies, sporting events, are great singers; although there are still big farms in that area. There is quite a bit of tourism, too, even though they are a little off the beaten track.
Take a look at some of these photographs of community events - the 'mardi-gras' festivities are not a 'gay' festival, but are taken part in by all the community - the 'devils' go back to heathen days, when 'winter demons' had to be 'driven out' - now just a bit of riotous fun for young men and boys.
https://unterkaerntner.at/galerien/The mine (Traudl Stollen) has been inactive now for many years and the roads leading to it are not capable of carrying heavy traffic. There are all sorts of little critters in this pristine environment which have 'protected' status, including some laws regarding the felling of trees etc. There is some tourism in winter in that area (skiing) - its not a major industry though.
So for the locals there is now really nothing to be gained by having an active mine, with all the rumbling of transport trucks etc. disturbing protected wildlife etc. - so why would the local mayor be inclined to help out? Now, in this present state of affairs, an active mine will be nothing but a major nuisance, only providing a handful of jobs to the locals and all the profits reaped by a foreign company or companies.
If EUR had been serious, they would have installed a local PR person! For a long time there wasn't even a company sign on the 'official' address of European Lithium. To this day I believe that the one publicity function produced on those premises was just for show and the premises are empty, no furniture, no charts on walls, no signage. In the meantime the question is: where is Mr Wanke, the only person on the management team, who speaks German, in all of this?
The whole manner of dealing with what still is a precious resource for Europe by European Lithium was off-handed and neglectful.
Sadly, I have come to the conclusion: 'they couldn't organise a piss-up in a Brewery' and I'll let you fill in who 'they' are.
IMO
Taurisk
