When five geologists fell on hard times during the commodities crash in 2014, they packed their bags and travelled to the Australian outback in search of fresh mineral riches to mine.

The friends, who met at university in Perth, began exploring for tantalum, a corrosive-resistant metal used in electronic equipment such as mobile phones. But within weeks of drilling holes on a prospect in the remote Pilbara region — think Mad Max — they unearthed a massive lithium deposit, the latest in a wave of discoveries that has transformed Australia into the world’s biggest supplier of the key ingredient in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

“Australia is now the lithium capital of the world and Pilgangoora is one of the biggest lithium mines on the planet,” says Neil Biddle, one of the five geologists and co-founder of Pilbara Minerals, which opened its mine and processing plant this month. “We [Australia] are already global leaders in gold and iron ore and we can do the same with lithium.”