Mining giant Rio Tinto is campaigning to win back public support in Serbia to restart a project to mine lithium. The Serbian government appears poised to reinstate blocked mining permits.
The new mine would mean a lot of jobs and tax revenue for Serbia
Mining giant Rio Tinto insists draft environmental impact assessments it has now released early prove its site in Serbia is environmentally safe to extract lithium.
In an interview with DW, Chad Blewitt, the managing director of Rio Tinto’s Jadar mine in northern Serbia, said they want to “get out of the disinformation, all the false claims, and have a fact-based dialogue.”
The project has faced years of intense controversy and protests by Serbians who fear the extraction of a lithium compound will pollute rivers, destroy surrounding farmland, and force people off their land.
Rio Tinto’s Chad Blewitt insists that agriculture will not be affected
“There will be no dangerous goods, no chemicals leaked into the air, water or soil,” insisted Rio Tinto’s Chad Blewit. “We will never breach Serbian or EU limits. We are 100% confident in the technology in the studies and Rio Tinto’s history of developing a large-scale underground mine.”
“Agriculture can coexist on the surface”, said Blewitt. “If you don’t just trust that the agriculture is safe, we will buy all the agricultural products you want to sell at market prices. All our workers can eat it. I’ll eat it.”
Government Permits
Focus has returned to the Jadar mine after Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic used an interview with the Financial Times to suggest “new guarantees” from Rio Tinto and the European Union would be enough for his government to reinstate the Anglo-Australian company’s mining permits.
Belgrade revoked Rio Tinto’s permissions after nationwide demonstrations by environmental groups in the run-up to a heated election campaign in 2022 which have continued since.
Vucic has said publicly that he believes the mine would provide enough lithium to make 1.1 million new electric vehicle batteries per year. He is also campaigning for EU manufacturers to set up factories to build batteries and cars in his country.
Serbia scraps plans for lithium mine
The EU fears the Serbian government could decide to hand control of the mine to China, especially following a visit to Belgrade in May this year by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Serbian President Vucic has stated he expects the Jadar mine would be operational by 2028.
But asked about the timeline by DW, Rio Tinto’s Chad Blewitt, insisted there are many steps to take before a date can be confirmed — starting with the official reinstatement of the mining permissions, DW reports.
