German leader to visit Serbia seeking lithium for his country's car industry

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is to visit Serbia later this week to discuss a tentative deal with the Balkan country for the controversial excavation of lithium, a critical substance in making batteries for electric vehicles. The largest carmaker in Europe, Germany, wants to secure lithium for its electric vehicle makers as Europe struggles to reduce its dependence on imports from China. China currently dominates the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries. Serbia’s constitutional court earlier this month overturned a previous ruling to cancel a $2.4 billion project launched by British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto in western Serbia that is believed to be the the largest lithium discovery in Europe.