Serbia rejected Europe's largest lithium mine plan on Thursday and revoked the lithium exploration license of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. The decision indicates that the Serbian government has finally made concessions to protesters who opposed the company's development of the project on environmental grounds, while the future supply of lithium, a key battery metal, will come under more pressure.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Burnabic (Ana Brnabi Prime Minister) said on the same day that "Serbia has' completely stopped 'the Rio Tinto Group's Jadar lithium project." All decisions and permits (relating to the lithium project) have been revoked. We have met all the demands of the environmentalists' protest, which is over in the case of the Jadar project. "
Burnabich did not answer the question of whether the government would allow lithium mining in the future.
After Mr Burnabich announced the decision, Rio Tinto said in a statement that it had been abiding by Serbian law. "Rio is reviewing the legal basis for this decision and its impact on our business activities and employees in Serbia."
Earlier this week, Rio Tinto delayed the first output of the Jadar project by one year to 2027 in its fourth-quarter production results, citing key delays in approval. Now, however, the lithium mining plan may have been completely stillborn.
Europe's largest lithium mine is planned to be stillborn.
In fact, with less than three months to go before the Serbian general election, the project has become a hot topic in Serbia recently. In December, opposition to the project's environmental issues rose, leading to demonstrations in several cities. The public pressure on Serbian Prime Minister Burnabic and President Vucic continues to increase, even after the government proposed a referendum on the mine.
Rio Tinto only announced in July last year that it would develop the $2.4 billion lithium project. In theory, approval of the project should have been certain, with the mine planned to be built on farmland, not virgin forest, and only a 10-hour drive from the German car manufacturing centre. According to the Rio Tinto Group, the project could create more than 2000 jobs for Serbia.
Ill-conceived, however, the announcement of the plan was made before the company got all the permits it needed, fuelled by environmentalists and opposition politicians, and has since quickly become a politically sensitive topic. at one point, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Serbia at the end of 2021.
The stillbirth of this plan is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Jakob Stausholm, Rio's new chief executive, who has only been in office for a year, and the Jadar lithium project is his first big decision. The company was trying to shake off the scandal over the bombing of 46000-year-old aboriginal sites, which had just cost its predecessor his job.
As originally envisioned by Rio Tinto, the Jadar lithium project will produce enough lithium to power 1 million electric vehicles, as well as borates for ceramics and batteries and sodium sulfate for detergents. When operating at full capacity, the mine is expected to produce 58000 tons of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate a year, making it the largest lithium mine in Europe and making Rio Tinto the largest lithium supplier in Europe for at least the next 15 years.
Serbian netizens celebrate: "deportation" of Rio Tinto
After the announcement of the decision to completely stop Rio Tinto's lithium project, many Serbs were deeply excited. World No. 1 men's tennis star Djokovic (Novak Djokovic) was stripped of his visa by the Australian government for the second time on Sunday, a high-profile sporting event that is rapidly worsening relations between Belgrade and Canberra.
In December, Djokovic himself published an article on social media with photos of the protest and publicly expressed support for "clean air." In response, many Serbian netizens even joked on Twitter that Rio Tinto was "deported" by Serbia.
The Jadar lithium project is one of Serbia's largest foreign investments to date as part of the government's efforts to attract investment and promote economic growth. But environmental groups in Serbia say the new mines will pollute land and water sources in the region, and Serbia has been severely affected by industrial pollution.
"We are listening to the people, and even if we think differently, it is our duty to protect their interests," Burnabic said on Thursday. "
Serbia is expected to hold parliamentary and presidential elections on April 3, but the exact date has not yet been officially confirmed by President Vucic.
It is worth mentioning that the decision announced on Thursday also shows that it has become increasingly difficult to mine new mines around the world, even commodities such as lithium, which are at the heart of global decarbonization efforts. The opposition Rio Tinto faces in Serbia is also being repeated around the world because communities believe that the jobs and taxes provided by mining are often insufficient to make up for the irreversible damage to the local environment.
Mining plans for mineral resources, such as copper projects in Peru and the US and lithium projects in Nevada, which are crucial to the global energy transformation, are also facing significant resistance. A growing number of battery and carmakers are increasingly worried about possible shortages of lithium supplies in the future. Lithium prices have soared to record levels this year as demand has soared.
