The largest lithium mine in Europe in the future will be cool due to environmental protection headwind Rio Tinto's "Lithium Mine Dream"?

In July, miner giant Rio Tinto announced plans to invest in lithium mines in Serbia. Rio Tinto plans to invest $2.4 billion in (Jadar) in the Jadar Valley in western Serbia to develop the largest lithium mine in Europe. Once developed, the lithium mine will be able to produce 58000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year and propel Rio Tinto into one of the top 10 lithium miners in the world.

However, this high-profile lithium mine project is currently facing fierce environmental headwinds.

The largest lithium mine project in Europe has been hit by environmental headwinds.

Serbia ranks 11th in lithium reserves in the world, and the Jadar project is one of Serbia's largest foreign investment projects to date. At a time of high global demand for lithium, the Serbian government has been hoping to use the Jadar project to boost the economy and rescue the country's worsening employment problem.

Rio Tinto said the project would create about 2100 construction jobs and inject about 200m euros ($1.522 billion) a year into Serbia's domestic supply chain.

Rio Tinto's Serbian chief executive also said the company's research estimated that the project would add 1 percentage point to Serbia's $51.4 billion annual GDP and help increase the budget of the city of Loznita, where lithium mines are located, by 60-70 per cent a year.

However, the lithium mine project has also been attacked by environmentalists. As early as April this year, thousands of people gathered in the Serbian capital Belgrade to protest against the country's widespread pollution problem and the lithium mine project. As of June 10, more than 110400 people had signed a petition opposing the lithium mine project.

Serbian President Vucic has also come under fire for supporting the project. In June, Vucic said a referendum would be held to let people decide whether to move forward with the project.

Since then, however, no further progress has been made in the referendum. In July this year, Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party and the Loznita City Council controlled by its allies approved a new municipal land allocation plan, officially giving the green light to mine construction.

This sparked protests from more environmentalists, including the Serbian centre-right activist group Dosta ie Bilo, which issued a statement earlier this month accusing Germany and other EU countries of seeing Serbia as "a source of cheap labor and dirty technology". "here, they can do what they can't do in their own homes."

The results of third-party research are not optimistic.

Vishna Prodanovich (Vesna Prodanovic), chief executive of Rio Tinto in Serbia, said the company would comply with all environmental regulations of the European Union and Serbia, including those on wastewater treatment.

"if you don't get a permit and don't comply with all these [EU standards], there's no way to start construction," she said in an interview. We take into account the level of precipitation and the prescribed level of dust. We considered everything at the scene. We are conducting all the research and testing to obtain clear data on the current situation in the region. "

However, according to media reports, Rio Tinto had previously commissioned the School of Biology of the University of Belgrade in Serbia to conduct a study on the environmental impact of the mine, which concluded that the mine should not be built. because it will cause "irreparable damage to the biosphere".

"the planned activities, especially the disposal of industrial waste, will seriously damage the biodiversity of the entire project area," the study said. "the impact in the main areas will completely and directly destroy the animal and plant habitat, and all the organisms that inhabit it will disappear."

Rio Tinto said the biodiversity study was only part of a broader feasibility study and would conduct further research to "minimise environmental impact".