Vesna Prodanovic, chief executive of Rio Tinto's Serbian branch, said Rio plans to suspend its Jadar lithium project in Serbia after a municipality cancelled plans to allocate land to the mine, according to foreign media reports.
The miner hopes to develop the mine near Loznica in the western Jadar valley, one of Serbia's main agricultural centres, accounting for about 1/5 of total agricultural production.
Jadar plans to produce about 58000 tonnes of lithium carbonate by 2029, making Rio one of the top 10 lithium producers in the world.
Last week, however, the Loznita City Council cancelled plans to allocate land for the project.
Vesna Prodanovic said Rio Tinto planned to suspend the project, during which it would hold public talks on the project, sparking protests from environmental groups.
"We hope to have an open dialogue so that residents can understand all aspects of our project," he said. "
Prodanovic said Rio also planned to "reconsider and possibly improve" the technical solutions it wants to use at the mine.
In recent weeks, environmental groups have staged protests and blocked roads across the country, demanding that the authorities end the project, leaving the ruling coalition loyal to President Alexander Vucic in political trouble ahead of the April election.
"the whole Jadar project is just another way for multinationals to profit and harm the Serbian people with the help of our country," said Slavisa Miletic, an activist who lives near the planned mine.
"in such a fierce anti-mining and negative campaign, it is extremely difficult to have a reasonable debate on any topic," Prodanovic said. "
The price of lithium, a component of electric car batteries, hit an all-time high this year, adding to concerns that lithium production is not enough to fuel internal combustion engines.
Opposition to Rio is being replicated around the world and industry executives see it as their biggest challenge in the future. Southern Copper is trying to win government support for its $1.4 billion Tia Maria project in Peru, while American Lithium is being sued in U.S. federal court for its plans to mine in Nevada.
