Why Austria?
Unlocking a New Exploration Search Space
Austria has remained largely underexplored despite significant historical mining activities and strong archival data of its numerous mineral occurrences. Ekometall's Phase I exploration program, completed in 2023, was one of Austria's first regional systematic base metals exploration campaigns in modern times. This is in contrast to the numerous mature exploration markets around the world, such as Canada, Australia, and the United States.
Ekometall's project portfolio comprises of five projects throughout approximately 500 square kilometers in the Austrian Alps. These licenses contain over 100 past-producing copper mines and unexplored mineral occurrences. The company believes that the tectonic environment that formed the Austrian Alps is conducive to the formation of a metallogenic province, and little work has been done to date to understand this ore-bearing potential on a regional scale.
Ekometall's projects are located in an area with access to high quality infrastructure, including highways and rail as well as a highly skilled workforce. Austria's position in Central Europe provides straightforward access to many raw material end users, including several smelters in Germany and France. With significant geopolitical uncertainty around the world, Ekometall's projects offer Austria and Europe the opportunity to source raw materials directly from the EU in a well-regulated, environmentally responsible manner.
Austria operates world class mines at Mittersill (Wolfram) and Breitanau (RHI Magnesita). Austria also hosts the world's largest siderite (iron carbonate) deposit at Erzberg, and also hosts one of Europe's largest advanced lithium projects at Wolfsberg. Additionally, Austria has an accessible, flexible, and affordable mineral exploration licensing system and supportive government departments. The permitting process in Austria is well-defined and consistent for both exploration work programs and mining activities.
Ekometall operates in communities within Austria that have hosted mining activities for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and much of this mining culture remains to this day. Extensive records exist detailing the historical mine workings, future mine plans, and detailed descriptions of the various mineral deposits. Our team has completed extensive desktop work processing and georeferencing these vast swaths of data.
