$15.5 billion for nothing? The Australian mining giant's dream is shattered. Europe's largest lithium mine project may be wiped out.

In July, Australian mining giant Rio Tinto announced a $2.4 billion (15.5 billion yuan) project to develop Europe's largest lithium project, Jadar, in Serbia. Once successfully developed, Rio Tinto will receive 58000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate a year. However, just won the project, the cooked duck may be about to fly away.

According to the latest report of the Financial Associated Press on August 27th, the Jadar project has come to a standstill due to protests from environmentalists. The results of a study by the School of Biology at the University of Belgrade in Serbia show that this project should not be developed and may have an irreparable impact on the local biosphere. That means Rio may not be able to continue to develop the project.

You know, Rio Tinto has been touting to Serbia the economic benefits of developing the Jadar project to be approved. The Australian mining giant pointed out that as Rio Tinto began investing in development, the project would inject about 200m into the Serbian supply chain each year, helping to boost the country's GDP by about 1 per cent.

It is worth mentioning that Rio Tinto has not given up, saying that it will further study how to develop lithium mines to minimize the environmental impact. However, no matter how much hype the Australian mining giant is talking about, it may not be able to shake the resolve of local environmentalists.

In fact, the reason why Rio Tinto does not give up on the Jadar project is mainly because lithium ore is the absolute code of wealth in the future era of electric cars. According to China International Capital Corporation's forecast, the global market demand for lithium resources will climb step by step from the current 430000 tons to 1.5 million tons LCE, supply will gradually tighten.

Seeing the demand for lithium ore at the level of one million tons, it is a major trend to increase the development of this resource. Statistics show that at present, Australia accounts for more than 50% of the world's lithium ore supply. But Rio Tinto, a local company, also hopes to make money by selling mines, so it is actively looking for new mines in overseas countries.