The JADAR valley is a unique ecosystem of nature and humanity. Surrounded by mountains and two rivers, this valley is home to generations of farmers, who produce over 70 million Euros of agricultural yield every year. The valley is self-sustaining and feeds not just its inhabitants, but surrounding areas as well. Groundwaters run so deep that even during drought, crops yield food. There are schools, churches and shops, a thriving cultural landscape and thousands who want to remain and maintain what has been handed to them for over generations from their predecessors. 

A full, downloadable copy of this document, with reference and source material can be found HERE.

In May 2021 the European Commission confirmed that the EIA directive and SEA directive will be applicable for assessing the environmental impact of the Jadar proposal and  that the EIA must cover the entire proposal so as to assess its cumulative impact. In early July 2021 Serbia’s ministry for the environment released RT’s scoping presentation report. It was incomplete and contained only the mine complex without the processing plant and tailings landfill. Assessment proper was supposed to commence early december 2021 and then construction in 2022, but enormous public opposition, including a petition with over 290 thousand signatures (5% of Serbia’s population), a book released by the Academy of Sciences and two weeks of civil disobedience with over 100 thousand people on the streets, led the government to annulling the Special Purpose Spatial Plan – Jadar, the legal premise for the project. They did this in view of quieting the subject before elections, after which President Vucic announced that the cancellation had been a mistake. The company then stated they hope to “be able to discuss all of the options with the government of Serbia now the elections are out of the way.” Mars sa Drine responded stating that “Serbia’s effort to transition into a politically stable country will be jeopardized if companies like Rio Tinto believe they can undermine democracy and try to re-introduce nepotism. The government made its choice: it listened to the people.” This new but not unexpected reality means that our movement continues until we have achieved complete legal protection of Jadar and sent Rio Tinto and any other potential investors packing.

As of 2025, more than 60% of Serbians oppose the Jadar project. The public’s stance remains unshaken, rooted in the defense of land, water, food sovereignty, and democratic accountability.

Rio Tinto’s jadarite (lithium and borate) mine proposal in Serbia

Rio Tinto’s lithium and borate proposal in the Jadar Valley covers 22 villages, with infrastructure included. The area is a rich agricultural area consisting of farming, bee-keeping, tourism etc. Agricultural yields alone are estimated at over 70 million Euros per year. The spatial plan for the mine embraces an area of 2,031 hectares for a special purpose complex, accompanying corridors and traffic infrastructure systems.​ Nearly 200 hectares of forests would need to be cut: 80 hectares for roads/ railways and 164 hectares for 35% of projected tailings. Rio Tinto needs to purchase 600 hectares of land from 335 landowners to developm. The mine is envisaged on the bank of the Korenita river, a tributary to the Jadar river, with underground mining to be performed underneath both riverbeds. Close by, a flotation facility would use 1000 tons of concentrated sulfuric acid per day (to be diluted by 5000-6000 tons of water). There is no information on where this sulfuric acid would come from, but an acid spill in February 2025 at Vrčin—unrelated to the mine but involving similar transport—served as a chilling preview of what’s at stake. The proposal is designed to operate 24/7 over a mine life of 60 years. 

The mine tailings and industrial waste disposal plan includes placing over 1.4 million tons of toxic material annually (90 million tons during mine life) above flood-prone terrain and near major water systems—including the Drina and Sava rivers, and the Belgrade water supply.  The Jadar and Korenita are prone to flooding every year, with a state of emergency declared in 2020 and the most recent floods being in 2025. The Drina flows into Bosnia & Herzegovina and the Danube flows into Romania. It is expected that changes in temperature will imply a higher risk of floods in extremely rainy periods, and of droughts in extremely warm periods of the year.

The proposal is low-cost and expandable, which taken together is the worst combination for a mine as most accidents occur with badly planned (low cost) mine extensions that keep adding to the tailings and waste deposits planned for the initial or first phase of the mine. 

The proposal is situated in an area of exceptional archaeological importance and Rio Tinto is currently considering an alternative to the current tailings site which would be situated in close proximity to Paulje, an archaeological site roughly 3500 years old. The Spatial Plan mentions some of them but omits several extremely important archeological and cultural sites and natural monuments (sections 5.1.1 and 6.2).

Nowhere in the world has lithium mining been permitted on fertile, inhabited land. No country has allowed a mine that would wipe out thriving villages, destroy farmland cultivated for generations, and threaten areas rich in cultural heritage and protected wildlife. This would set a dangerous global precedent.

There exists considerable local, national and transnational opposition to the mine proposal. Ne Damo Jadar (NDJ) is an association of 335 property owners, based in the Jadar Valley, Western Serbia opposed to Rio Tinto’s proposed lithium and borate mine and processing center based on social, environmental, economic and heritage grounds. Marš sa Drine (MSD) is a network comprising 20 organizations and independent experts throughout Serbia, its diaspora and internationally. A petition launched by MSD has gathered over 290,000 signatures (5% of the Serbian population) against the proposed mine in Serbia and almost half a million in Europe.  

Irregularities are already identified from Rio Tinto’s first (2021) and second (2024) scoping report applications: In both scoping reports they do not take into consideration the effects of the entire project. Provisions of the EIA Directive cannot be avoided by splitting projects into smaller projects, and failing to take into account their cumulative environmental impact.^/ In 2021, the PPR did not include ore processing and final products, as well chemical and other ore treatment, or planned solutions for treatment and disposal of waste. Hence there was no mention or description of the technology used for the processing of lithium ore, how the mining waste will be treated, what its character is, its composition, the location of the landfill, or any other information related to it. There was no description on the significance and quality of natural resources in existence or on protected natural areas.

In September 2024, the scoping request was limited to the area and surface necessary to access the mine facilities. According to information provided by Rio Tinto, the company intends to request separate scoping decisions for the processing site and waste disposal at a later stage. The request for subdivision violates Serbian Law on Environmental Impact Assessment which requires the assessment of the environmental impacts of a “project” as a whole. Other sub-zones not included in the scoping request are the construction of planned roads, a planned 110 kV power line protection zone, the alteration of a section of the Korenita River, and a clay borrow pit.

Since Serbia’s EIA Law has been adopted as part of transposing the European acquis communautaire, the Court of Justice (CJEU)’s case law and official guidance by the EU Commission can be consulted to resolve ambiguities. The CJEU has repeatedly ruled that the EIA directive shall not be circumvented by the splitting of projects and that the cumulative effects of a project’s different elements must be taken into account.

In addition, the request for the scoping decision failed to include a description of the water supply system from the Drina alluvium89 and its transportation to the facilities. Water extraction needed for facilities is an integral part of the project and cannot be treated as a separate concern. Moreover, the request does not contain an appropriate description of the impact of climate change on the project. Given the planned lifetime of the project indicated by the project developer of 71 years, an analysis of these effects would be important to address.

An open letter from the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts to prime minister Ana Brnabić outlines experts’ concerns of environmental and scientific irregularities in the project.  Their peer approved publication “Project Jadar – what is known” contains numerous studies, analysis and opinions on the catastrophic potentialities of this project. In September 2021 Banktrack also listed the Jadar proposal on their dodgy deal database, where letters to banks and investors of Rio Tinto and to their shareholders are made public, and with Marš sa Drine they published financial risk reports in 2023 and 2025. 

It is no exaggeration to state that Serbia’s government has no control over the implementation of its own environmental protection laws, let alone of its obligations towards the environmental acquis. Premier Ana Brnabic endorsed Rio Tinto’s proposal of ‘strategic importance’ in 2021 without even the existence of an EIA or feasibility report. Power of Attorney was signed off to Rio Tinto by Serbia Roads, in order for the company to be able to act on behalf of this publicly funded agency. 

The project has been fraught with irregularities at the highest political level.  In 2017 the Serbian government and Rio Tinto signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which was withheld from the public for many years (despite Rio Tinto’s claims for CSR, transparency etc.) In spring 2021 the government approved the proposal’s local spatial plan despite being incomplete. It was adopted without a feasibility study at its base (which is a legal requirement) and without a long-term exploitation program, required for projects longer than 10 years. This local spatial plan was annulled after local opposition gathered 5 thousands signatures in 7 days. However the annulment did not legally alter the company’s permits as they were based on the federal Special Purpose Spatial Plan, which was only canceled on January 20 2022 after public pressure, and also came with controversies of its own. 

The EU Commission has been a strong supporter of the project’s development; going so far as to endorse it despite its early stages and not permitting. In October 2021, Marš sa Drine exposed correspondence between EU Commission department DG Grow and Rio Tinto which showed the mine was planned to receive approval in May 2022, after Serbia’s general elections, and that it had the support of Serbian President, Aleksandrar Vucic. This generated significant backlash against Vucic because he had actually announced that the decision over Jadar would belong to the people via a national referendum. To amplify this betrayal, Mars sa Drine and experts met with EU ambassador, Emanuele Giaufret, where it was made clear that further political pressure on this project would have adverse effects for the relationship between the Serbian people and the European Union. What followed in the next few years, proved just that. 

Reacting to huge on- and off-line public outcry at a time of imminent general elections, Serbia’s prime minister announced on 20 January 2022 that Rio Tinto’s entire mine proposal had been canceled with the annulment of the Special Purpose Spatial Plan, which is the legal basis for all of the project’s permits. 

A correct legal procedure following the cancellation of the SPSP would have been for all relevant authorities to repeal without delay all individual acts they adopted with connection to this spatial plan. That did not happen, and requests for access to this information yielded no results. However, it was widely reported  that Rio Tinto was continuing to purchase properties within the project footprint, as well as trespassing on local activists’ land and employing more people. . 

Then, a mere week ahead of 3 April, a whistleblower shared evidence confirming that Rio Tinto was currently working with Thyssen Schachtbau on delivering a VSM boring machine to the Jadar Valley after the elections.  MSD released material of the leak. The government reacted instantly stating that “the Administrative Commission annulled the decision of the Ministry of Environmental Protection on the scope and content of the EIA.” 

To that end, civil society groups initiated a “citizens initiative” which is a process that grants its authors the right to present a bill to parliament if they manage to gather 30,000 notarized signatures. In this instance, 38,000 signatures were gathered in 20 days. The request is for a legal ban on the extraction of lithium and borates in Serbia. It will be presented as soon as parliament reconvenes after the summer recess. 

Two days after his re-election president Vucic confirmed that canceling Rio Tinto’s project had been a mistake. Rio Tinto then announced intent of coming back. Marš sa Dine addressed the entitlement of the company and its assault on the will of the people with an open statement to the press and letters to the company’s lenders in collaboration with Banktrack. 

Organisation Earth Thrive submitted a complaint to the Bureau of the Bern Convention, of which Serbia is a full signatory, in April of 2022. The complaint outlines serious harm that could be caused to the numerous and highly protected species and wild habitats in the region, and carries within it potential evidence of breaches of international law and ethical corporate social responsibility. “’In consideration of the ecological value of the area at the center of the complaint,” The Bureau “expressed its concern on the considerable negative effects on the species and habitats that the construction of a lithium mine would have.” 

In May 2022, through a Freedom of information response, it was revealed that the exploitation license for the Jadar mining complex, which was supposed to have been cancelled with the Spatial Plan, was still in process. This was further confirmed by the Ministry for Mining in October. An open letter to Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, from MSD and local landowners demanding clarification for these legal irregularities, still remains unanswered. 

At around the same time Rio Tinto was having behind closed doors meetings with the European Commission, sharing new strategies for their officially cancelled project. EU documents revealed by MSD show that Rio Tinto was forming more relationships with locals and academic institutions, and strategising to get involved in agriculture.

In October, local businesses started receiving email requests for quotes regarding work on a wastewater treatment for Project Jadar from US company Bechtel. In response to public complaints about this and job offers, Rio Tinto put out a statement on their website claiming they have “outstanding legal commitments” including the completion of an internal feasibility study. They claim to “respect the government’s decision to revoke all permits and licenses for the project” despite evidence of the licensing procedure still being in process. 

In July 2022, representatives of nine organizations from Serbia, Portugal, Germany, Chile and Spain signed the Jadar Declaration on international solidarity against lithium exploitation and for environmental protection. The dominant narrative around lithium normalizes “sacrifice zones,” and the Jadar declaration is a basis for mutual support, cooperation, exchanging information and help against extractivism brought by an unjust energy transition. The greenwashing of the energy transition saw further exposure in media coverage about the potential sacrifice of The Balkans for Europe’s Energy transition with the latter’s attempt to move away from reliance on China, which is now becoming irrelevant due to Tariffs as Marš Šefčovič and the EU turn back to China.

Given the huge public awareness campaign in Serbia, other regions in danger from lithium exploration have been active. In December, the region of Valjevo won a victory against Euro Lithium, after the Ministry for mining refused to renew the company’s exploration license, while local citizens of the villages of the Levac area have been camping for over four months in order to protect an acre of land from being test drilled. 

As prime minister Ana Brnabic proclaims that this is a historic opportunity for Serbia, negating her previous statements that she has put a “full stop” to the Jadar Project, we continue to prepare for further actions in the goal of protecting and preserving the Jadar Valley.

Despite the Serbian government’s cancellation of the project, Rio Sava continued to invest heavily —spending over €600 million to date, over €300 million of which was spent after the 2022 cancellation, including €92 million on feasibility studies and €100 million on consultations. Marš sa Drine revealed in 2024 that much of this spending—especially the majority on “intangible” services—raises serious questions about transparency, legality, and the company’s true intentions. With suspicions of tax evasion, and attempts to sidestep the project’s cancellation through legal loopholes, scrutiny of Rio Sava’s financial and operational conduct is intensifying.

In May 2024, the EU Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič told the media that a raw materials agreement between Serbia and the EU was imminent. Speaking on the controversial Jadar Project, he stated: “There were some legal issues in the past, which are now being discussed between the company and the government.” However, this statement runs contrary to legal regulations, as the project was still undergoing administrative proceedings in Serbian courts —something Šefčovič himself acknowledged.

In July 2024, the Serbian Constitutional Court controversially overturned the 2022 annulment of the Special Purpose Spatial Plan, effectively reopening Rio Tinto’s path to pursue the Jadar project. Despite widespread insistence from the government that the 2022 cancellation was final, Rio Tinto’s uninterrupted activities—including land acquisitions, feasibility work, and attempts to re-establish legitimacy—suggested otherwise. The court’s decision reactivated the permitting process, sparking renewed public outrage and street protests in over 50 cities, culminating in tens of thousands of people across the country, and one hundred thousand in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, demanding that the mine be permanently banned.

In parallel, Rio Tinto submitted a draft Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for three project segments, published between September and December 2024. These were met with fierce scientific and civic backlash. The Faculty of Biology of the University of Belgrade publicly disassociated itself from Rio Tinto’s interpretation of its biodiversity study, asserting that the conclusions had been manipulated and warning that the only scientifically viable mitigation was full project abandonment.

Meanwhile, damning peer-reviewed research published in Nature (July 2024) documented that even the exploratory drilling phase of the project had already caused serious environmental degradation—boron and arsenic leaks, crop damage, contamination of downstream water systems, and significant exceedances of soil pollutant thresholds.

Despite this, Serbia’s government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the EU in July 2024 under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), opening the door for the Jadar project to be designated “strategic.” Civil society groups, including Marš sa Drine and Green Legal Impact Germany, filed a complaint to the EU Commission in November, warning that strategic recognition would violate both Serbian law and human rights standards.

“Granting strategic status to a company that violates laws, lacks operational permits, and has no waste management approval would only worsen the Serbian public’s perception of EU integration.” — Bojana Novaković of Marš sa Drine said.

Throughout 2024, the repression of activists escalated dramatically. According to the POLEKOL report, over 40 environmental activists were arrested during the August protests, many under absurd charges such as “calling for violent overthrow of the constitution” based on social media posts. Ivan Bjelić of Marš sa Drine was arrested and imprisoned and later released due to lack of evidence. Multiple activists—including scientists—were harassed or threatened, and some were physically assaulted or unlawfully detained by unidentified officers.

In economic terms, a landmark independent analysis released in October 2024 found that the Jadar project would bring negligible benefit to Serbia. Serbia stands to receive just €17.4 million per year in public revenue—equivalent to €2.6 per capita—while carrying the cost burden of public infrastructure, risk mitigation, and environmental disaster response. Meanwhile, Rio Tinto’s projected net profits exceed €11.5 billion, with full ownership of extracted resources.

While Rio Sava and the Ministry for the Environment commenced the EIA scoping process, it was significantly stalled by over 10,000 Serbian citizens who filed complaints against the government’s approval process. The complaints specified how the project was being pushed through illegally, which if taken seriously could potentially paralyze the administrative system.  Each complaint must be individually addressed before the decision becomes final, and the decision has been delayed now since Jan 2025.

Serbian Academy of Sciences members reiterated their opposition in April 2025, stating that the project violates both national and EU environmental laws, notably the Water Law and Waste Management Law. It emphasized that the Mačva aquifer—among Serbia’s most critical drinking water sources—would be irreversibly contaminated if the mine were built. The Academy restated that “abandonment is the only rational option.” There is no example of a struggle of this magnitude, with a hundred thousand people on the streets in over 50 cities, a domestic and  international campaign involving everyone from local farmers to academics, lawyers and activists, against a mine that has no permits, where the company hasn’t withdrawn. 

“There are things that money can’t buy. Our land, our roots, our home, our heritage are not for sale, nor are our souls. We inherited everything we have, and it is our obligation to pass it on to our grandchildren. You do not have our permission to build a mine in the Jadar Valley! We will defend this country at the cost of our lives.” Zlatko Kokanović, vice president of the association “Ne Damo Jadar”.

We just want our normal little lives back. We want to do our agriculture and our jobs. We do not want to think about the mine, nor about pollution. Life is in full force here. Our children, these fields, houses, – this took generations to build. One company cannot erase all this or erase the traditions of our people. Marijana Trbović Petković, “Ne Damo Jadar” Gornje Nedeljice.Given that the insatiable drive for profit is what got us into the climate crisis in the first place, is its solution a cheap mine in the hands of a world polluter, where we replace one form of extraction with another? If we let Rio Tinto come to Europe, we are incentivising environmental degradation at the expense of looking at real solutions. We are allowing corporations who are responsible for the climate crisis to act as if they are its solution. Bojana Novakovic – co-ordinator Mars Sa Drine campaign project Management Contractor (PMC) support to the project since 2018.

The interview sheds light on the broader geopolitical dynamics at play, including the European Union’s push for critical minerals to support its green transition and the tensions arising from local opposition to such projects. Novakovic emphasizes the importance of community-led activism in challenging powerful corporate interests and advocates for sustainable alternatives that respect both the environment and local livelihoods. Her insights underscore the complexities of balancing economic development with environmental stewardship and social justice.

For the full report and sound go to The New Internationalist.

FULL REPORT HERE.

Serbian police and intelligence authorities are using advanced phone spyware alongside mobile phone forensic products to unlawfully target journalists, environmental activists and other individuals in a covert surveillance campaign, a new Amnesty International report has revealed. 

The report, “A Digital Prison”: Surveillance and the Suppression of Civil Society in Serbia,” documents how mobile forensic products made by Israeli company Cellebrite are being used to extract data from mobile devices belonging to journalists and activists. It also reveals how the Serbian police and the Security Information Agency (Bezbedonosno-informativna Agencija – BIA) have used a bespoke Android spyware system, NoviSpy, to covertly infect individuals’ devices during periods of detention or police interviews. 

“Our investigation reveals how Serbian authorities have deployed surveillance technology and digital repression tactics as instruments of wider state control and repression directed against civil society,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe. 

“It also highlights how Cellebrite mobile forensic products – used widely by police and intelligence services worldwide – can pose an enormous risk to those advocating for human rights, the environment and freedom of speech, when used outside of strict legal control and oversight.” 

How Cellebrite and NoviSpy is used to target devices 

Cellebrite, a firm founded and headquartered in Israel but with offices globally, develops the Cellebrite UFED suite of products for law enforcement agencies and government entities. It enables the extraction of data from a wide range of mobile devices including some of the most recent Android devices and iPhone models, even without access to the device passcode.  

While less technically advanced than highly-invasive commercial spyware like Pegasus, NoviSpy – a previously unknown Android spyware – still provides Serbian authorities with extensive surveillance capabilities once installed on a target’s device. 

NoviSpy can capture sensitive personal data from a target phone and provide capabilities to turn on a phone’s microphone or camera remotely, while Cellebrite forensic tools are used to both unlock the phone prior to spyware infection and also allow the extraction of the data on a device. 

Critically, Amnesty International uncovered forensic evidence showing how Serbian authorities used Cellebrite products to enable NoviSpy spyware infections of activists’ phones. In at least two cases, Cellebrite UFED exploits (software that takes advantage of a bug or vulnerability) were used to bypass Android device security mechanisms, allowing the authorities to covertly install the NoviSpy spyware during police interviews. 

Amnesty International also identified how Serbian authorities used Cellebrite to exploit a zero-day vulnerability (a software flaw which is not known to the original software developer and for which a software fix is not available) in Android devices to gain privileged access to an environmental activist’s phone. The vulnerability, identified in collaboration with security researchers at Google Project Zero and Threat Analysis Group, affected millions of Android devices worldwide that use the popular Qualcomm chipsets. An update fixing the security issue was released in the October 2024 Qualcomm Security Bulletin.

Cellebrite phone hacking and spyware infection threats to journalists and activists 

In February 2024, Serbian independent investigative journalist Slaviša Milanov was arrested and detained by police under the pretext of performing a test for driving under the influence of alcohol. While in detention, Slaviša was questioned by plain-clothes officers about his journalism work. Slaviša’s Android phone was turned off when he surrendered it to police and at no point was he asked for nor did he provide the passcode. 

After his release, Slaviša noticed that his phone, which he had left at the police station reception during his interrogation, appeared to have been tampered with, and his phone data was turned off.  

He requested Amnesty International’s Security Lab to conduct a forensic analysis of his phone – a Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S. The analysis revealed that Cellebrite’s UFED product was used to secretly unlock Slaviša’s phone during his detention. 

Additional forensic evidence showed that NoviSpy was then used by Serbian authorities to infect Slaviša’s phone. A second case in the report, involving an environmental activist, Nikola Ristić, found similar forensic evidence of Cellebrite products used to unlock a device to enable subsequent NoviSpy infection. 

“Our forensic evidence proves that the NoviSpy spyware was installed while the Serbian police had possession of Slaviša’s device, and the infection was dependent on the use of an advanced tool like Cellebrite UFED capable of unlocking the device. Amnesty International attributes the NoviSpy spyware to BIA with high confidence,” said Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, the Head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab.  

Activists infected with NoviSpy while making complaints to the police or BIA 

This tactic of installing spyware covertly on people’s devices during detention or interviews appears to have been widely used by the authorities. 

In another case, an activist from Krokodil, an organization promoting dialogue and reconciliation in the Western Balkans, had their phone, a Samsung Galaxy S24+, infected with spyware during an interview with BIA officials in October 2024.  

The activist was invited to BIA’s office in Belgrade to provide information about an attack on their offices by Russian speaking people ostensibly in opposition to Krokodil’s public condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

After the interview, the activist suspected that their phone had been tampered with. At their request, Amnesty International carried out a forensic investigation which found that NoviSpy had been installed on the device during the BIA interview. Amnesty International was also able to recover and decrypt surveillance data captured by NoviSpy while the activist was using their phone, which included screenshots of email accounts, Signal and WhatsApp messages and social media activity. 

Amnesty International reported the NoviSpy spyware campaign to security researchers at Android and Google before publication, who took action to remove the spyware from affected Android devices. Google has also sent out a round of “Government-backed attack” alerts to individuals they identified as possible targets of this campaign.   

Impact of state digital surveillance and repression tactics on Serbian civil society

Serbian activists have been left traumatised by the targeting. 

“This is an incredibly effective way to completely discourage communication between people. Anything that you say could be used against you, which is paralyzing at both personal and professional levels,” said Branko*, an activist who was targeted with Pegasus spyware. 

The targeting has also resulted in self-censorship. 

“We are all in the form of a digital prison, a digital gulag. We have an illusion of freedom, but in reality, we have no freedom at all. This has two effects: you either opt for self-censorship, which profoundly affects your ability to do work, or you choose to speak up regardless, in which case, you have to be ready to face the consequences,” said Goran*, an activist also targeted with Pegasus spyware. 

Activist, Aleksandar* who was also targeted with Pegasus spyware, said: “My privacy was invaded, and this completely shattered my sense of personal security. It caused huge anxiety…I felt a sense of panic and became quite isolated.” 

In a response to these findings, NSO Group, which developed Pegasus, could not confirm whether Serbia was its customer but stated that the Group “takes seriously its responsibility to respect human rights, and is strongly committed to avoiding causing, contributing to, or being directly linked to negative human rights impacts, and thoroughly review all credible allegations of misuse of NSO Group products.” 

In response to our findings, Cellebrite said, “Our digital investigative software solutions do not install malware nor do they perform real-time surveillance consistent with spyware or any other type of offensive cyber activity.  

 “We appreciate Amnesty International highlighting the alleged misuse of our technology. We take all allegations seriously of a customer’s potential misuse of our technology in ways that would run counter to both explicit and implied conditions outlined in our end-user agreement. 

 “We are investigating the claims made in this report. Should they be validated, we are prepared to impose appropriate sanctions, including termination of Cellebrite’s relationship with any relevant agencies.” 

In response to Amnesty International’s queries sent early during the research process, Cellebrite said its products “are licensed strictly for lawful use, require a warrant or consent to help law enforcement agencies with legally sanctioned investigations after a crime has taken place.” 

While this may be the intended use, Amnesty International’s research demonstrates how Cellebrite’s products can be misused to enable spyware deployment and the broad collection of data from mobile phones outside of justified criminal investigations, posing grave risks to human rights.  

Amnesty International has shared the findings of this research with the Serbian government ahead of the publication but has not received a response.  

Serbian authorities must stop using highly invasive spyware and provide effective remedy to victims of unlawful targeted surveillance and hold those responsible for the violations to account. Cellebrite and other digital forensic companies also must conduct adequate due diligence to ensure that their products are not used in a way which contributes to human rights abuses. 

Over the past years, state repression and a hostile environment for free speech advocates in Serbia has escalated with each wave of anti-government protests. The authorities have engaged in sustained smear campaigns against NGOs, media and journalists and have also subjected those involved in peaceful protest to arrests and judicial harassment. 

*Name changed to protect identity 

Signatories reject the proposed legislation because of its disregard for environmental and human rights, endorsement of social engineering, and failure to address Europe’s obsolete mining regulations and the urgency of reducing demand. If approved, the Act will fast-track permitting procedures, water down environmental laws and set the floor to inject billions of euros into socially and environmentally irresponsible mining corporations.

“The European Parliament and the Commission had the opportunity to meet the needs of local communities with this law and they failed miserably,” says Bojana Novakovic from the movement against lithium mining “Marš sa Drine” in Serbia. “We are tired of begging, pleading and negotiating. The EU has failed us, so we are sending a clear message – withdraw the law or you will see us on the streets and in court.”

The announcement earlier this week of a political agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council to push forward with the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) has brought about an immediate reaction among civil society organizations, local communities as well as experts and academics across the world. Recalling the ongoing political crisis in Portugal and its connection with two lithium mining projects, the letter warns that the regulation will extend the influence of the mining lobby and spread even more corruption due to less regulation. 

It also exposes how EU policymakers have failed to see beyond the Brussels ‘bubble’, disregarding the potentially catastrophic impacts of a new mining boom. Signatories condemn the proposed legislation’s endorsement of ‘social acceptance’ activities aimed at changing public opposition to mining projects into passive tolerance or active support. The letter also exposes 25 projects funded by the EU at a total cost of €181M with deliverables that seek out to build public acceptance for extractive projects.

“It’s simple for us,” says a representant from MiningWatch Romania: “Approval of the CRMA will lead to legal action as the proposed legislation would breach rights of public participation in environmental decision making, enshrined by the Aarhus Convention which the European Union ratified.”

On the situation in Portugal, the founder of MiningWatch Portugal, Nik Völker, adds: “Unfortunately, non-compliance seems to be the norm in Portugal, even in well-documented cases known to the authorities. The Borba tragedy, the tailings from the Panasqueira mine and, since last week, the acid waters in Aljustrel, also testify to a precarious state of the competent authorities. The Brussels ‘bubble’ that envisages permitting in two years seems a long way from our reality of projects that are already half a decade in the process, for example for Lithium in the Barroso area.”

Letter to the Commission: https://miningwatch.pt/public/OpenLetter-CSO-CRMA_2023-11-16.pdf

A BIRN investigation shows that Rio Tinto has spent more than a million euros on land in Serbia at the proposed site of a lithium mine that was eventually cancelled a year ago, while a redacted readout of a meeting with the EU makes clear the company’s fear of a national referendum on the issue.

Since mid-2022, the year Serbia’s government revoked licences for a $2.4 billion lithium mine, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has spent at least 1.2 million euros on land in the area that it hoped to exploit, BIRN can report, and is now offering financial aid to local firms in an apparent bid to win favour.

Faced with growing public opposition, the government called off the project in January last year, but critics speculated that the halt was only temporary, to avoid a voter backlash in elections that April.

But while Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stressed again in December that she sees no way back for the ‘Jadar’ project, the company itself says it has not “given up” and President Aleksandar Vucic is again mooting the possibility of a referendum. Opponents of the project face being beaten, he said on January 5.

“You never know – maybe they’ll have that referendum, maybe next or the year after that, you never know, just to fulfill a promise, so they can see how they will fare,” said Vucic, who as leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party is the most powerful political figure in the country.

A nationwide plebiscite, however, is precisely what Rio Tinto fears, according to a redacted readout – obtained by BIRN – of a meeting between company officials and the European Union delegation in Serbia on March 25 last year, two months after the project was officially cancelled.

Rio Tinto: ‘We haven’t given up’

With demand for electric vehicle batteries on the rise, Rio Tinto says the lithium mine in the area of Loznica, western Serbia, would be the biggest in Europe and make the company one of the top 10 lithium producers in the world.

The project has strong backing from the UK, Australia, United States, and the EU. The latter imports almost all of the lithium it uses but has ambitions to secure an entire supply chain of battery minerals and materials, with demand for lithium predicted to grow 18 times by 2030 and 60 times by 2050.

Serbia stands to benefit from some 2,100 construction jobs and an injection of roughly 200 million euros per year into the domestic supply chain, Rio says. Environmentalists, however, fear huge damage to water and land in western Serbia, while some Serbs say they feel steamrollered by the powerful multinational mining giant.

Facing an election in April 2022, the government scrapped the project in the January, but Rio Tinto has not gone away.

Between June 2022 and January 2023, the company has paid some 1.2 million euros for 5.78 hectares of land via seven separate contracts with residents in the proposed mining site, BIRN found by analysing and cross-matching data from state cadastral records.

Then in January, Rio Tinto announced a programme of to support sustainable local development in the Loznica area via financial grants for local enterprises.

The company has not hidden its ambition to revive what chief executive Jakob Stausholm called in December an “amazing asset.”

“We need to figure out how to go about it,” Stausholm was quoted by Reuters as telling an investor briefing in Sydney. “The only thing I would say today is we haven’t given up.”

Asked about its continued land purchases, Rio Tinto told BIRN: “The purchase of the land is a continuation of the previously undertaken obligations of the Rio Sava company,” referring to its local subsidiary.

Pressed for clarification of these “obligations”, the company did not respond.

Regarding its support for local businesses, Rio Tinto said it was part of the company’s “commitment to the communities in which it operates” and has nothing to do with any potential referendum.

Rio Tinto reiterated that it still believes the Jadar project “has the potential to be a world-class operation that could support the development of other future industries in Serbia, acting as a flywheel for tens of thousands of new jobs for current and future generations, and the sustainable production of materials that are key to the energy transition.”

The environmental campaign group ‘Mars sa Drine’ [Get off the Drina], which opposes the Jadar project, said it had warned all along that the cancellation of the mine was a charade, but that its fate would ultimately be decided by the public.

“Rio Tinto buys people off with offers of cash, and now, in a genius marketing move, they act like a humanitarian organization that invests in local crafts,” Jovana Amidzic, a representative of the group, told BIRN. “Rio Tinto can stay on that land for 40 years, but there will be no mines.”

Nationwide referendum risks ‘more complicated dynamic’

Reviving the project without some kind of referendum risks a major public backlash against Vucic’s Progressives.

At a meeting with the EU delegation in Serbia on March 25 last year, Rio Tinto representatives appeared to be open to a local poll among villagers in the affected area, but not necessarily a wider plebiscite.

“A referendum could indicate the will of the inhabitants of the 12 villages of the area of Loznica, who according to the company would be the key players in the execution of the project, and those who would benefit the most,” a redacted summary of the meeting reads. “A local referendum would thus favour the company.”

“A nationwide referendum including Belgrade, where the most negativity comes from, could produce a more complicated dynamic,” the document adds.

BIRN received the summary from an EU citizen who obtained it from the European Commission on the basis of a Freedom of Information request. BIRN obtained another copy of the document from another EU citizen, who had also submitted an FOI to the Commission, but in the second document the reference to Rio Tinto’s misgivings about a national referendum was blacked out.

The Commission shortly told BIRN that it was “a clerical error”.

BIRN received the summary of the Rio Tinto’s meeting with EU Delegation from an EU citizen who obtained it from the European Commission on the basis of a Freedom of Information request, which makes clear the company’s fear of a national referendum on the issue.

BIRN obtained another copy of the document from another EU citizen, who had also submitted an FOI to the Commission, but in the second document the reference to Rio Tinto’s misgivings about a national referendum was blacked out.

In its response for this story, Rio Tinto did not comment directly on the possibility of a referendum, saying it was a matter for “the competent authorities” in Serbia.

Amidzic of Mars sa Drine said that Rio Tinto’s fear of a national referendum only underscored the strength of public resistance, even though the country’s president and government were firmly behind the mine.

“Even with all the machinery of Vucic’s rule over the media, the people’s resistance is clear to them,” Amidzic said, adding that regardless of whether the project is put to a referendum, it is already in violation of the law. “There are legal processes that have not been followed, and therefore we can see that this project cannot be realised according to legal regulations because it is catastrophic in terms of its impact on biodiversity, people’s health, water, air and land”.

Project aborted, but approval pending

Calling off the project on January 20, 2022, Serbia’s government terminated a decree concerning the spatial plan of the special purpose area for the Jadar project and, five days later, annulled a decision by the Ministry of Environmental Protection regarding the environmental impact study.

“All administrative acts related to Rio Tinto, i.e. Rio Sava, all permits, decisions, and everything else has been annulled,” Brnabic declared in the wake of mass protests. “With this, as far as the Jadar and Rio Tinto project is concerned, everything is over.”

However, Rio Tinto’s request for the approval of the exploitation field, submitted on January 6, 2021, is still pending, Ministry of Mining confirmed to Mars sa Drine organization.

BIRN asked the Ministry of Mining why the request is still officially under consideration if the project has already been aborted, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

In November last year, the government also signed declarations of intent with Slovakian battery maker InoBat to build an electric vehicle battery factory in Serbia, Reuters reported. Rio Tinto is an investor in InoBat.

Activists and the opposition say this all points to a likely revival of the Jadar project.

Meanwhile, a proposal to ban the mining of lithium and boron in Serbia, signed by more than 38,000 people and submitted to parliament last year, has still to come before the competent committee of ministry, despite rules that it should do so within 30 days.

Radomir Lazovic, an MP of the opposition Green-Left Coalition, said the so-called ‘People’s Initiative’ was being kept from lawmakers on someone’s orders.

“At every session and at every opportunity I asked what’s happening with the People’s Initiative,” Lazovic told BIRN.

“I managed to get answers from the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government, and now the answer has arrived from the Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Legislation that this document never reached them, which can only mean one thing – that someone deliberately removed it from the regular procedure.”

BIRN sent inquiries to the Serbian president’s office and the Serbian government about the Rio Tinto lithium project, but received no response by the time of publication.

Australian-Serbian actress-turned-activist and campaigner tells BIRN that fighting for better air and healthier soil is more important than taking glamorous Hollywood roles.

Bojana Novakovic is a theatre but also a well-known film and TV actress, starring in popular award-winning movies and series. Currently, she is in the centre of attention for her roles in two series, “Love me”, which explores modern intimate partnerships and crime drama “Instinct”, where she co-stars with Alan Cumming. 

She is also known for her roles in Burning man, Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson and many others, and for classics such as the Oscar-winning I Tonya and multiple Emmy-awarded series “Shameless” and “Westworld”.

But since moving to Australia in 1988, as a seven-year-old, Novakovic, now 41, was not so famous in Serbia until recently. And surprisingly, it is not so much for her acting but for her activism. 

Novakovic has become one of the leading faces of Serbia’s growing eco-movement, which is currently focused on stopping the controversial lithium mining project of global mining giant Rio Tinto.

“They often ask me why I needed this. I could stay in my safe zone, acting and traveling, but sometimes I am offended by these questions,” Novakovic told BIRN in an interview.

“Do I need a reason to care about public health or collective happiness? Why do they need to ask me why I fight for better air and healthier soil in my country?” she asks.

She welcomes the fact that this is one of the rare interviews in which she is asked explicitly about her activism, or “social organizing”, as she calls it, not about her acting career and its glamour.

“I would be much more successful commercially if I was not doing this [activism]. When I do an interview, they always want me to talk like about, say, starring with Keanu Reeves, or shooting in an exotic location in Japan, and are dazzled when I say: ‘I am in Serbia, coordinating a campaign against the Rio Tinto lithium mining project,” Novakovic says. 

Novakovic has become a main face of the “Mars sa Drine” [“Get off the Drina”] campaign, which opposes the so-called Jadar lithium mine. She claims Rio Tinto has a “horrible reputation” and does not want it in the country

“It is not just a fight against the project, it is a fight for survival. The essence is to preserve what we have in ways that are healthy and not continue over-production and exploitation. This [project] is just packaged as healthy; it’s just marketing and it will not bring anything good to ordinary people,” she told BIRN.

From school protests to nationwide campaigns

Novakovic’s family has been always political, which has influenced her own social awareness. The fact that they left Yugoslavia just few years before the 1990s wars, which resulted in horrible crimes and the dissolution of a country, was another important factor.

“We did not have internet at the time, but we were following the news and my parents made constant calls to Yugoslavia, talking to friends and relatives in order to compare facts and see how they are doing,” Novakovic recalls. “I grew up in that kind of environment. There was always talks about politics and news on the TV,” she adds.

In the winter of 1996–1997, university students and opposition parties organized a series of peaceful protests in Serbia against the attempted electoral fraud of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. Surprisingly, she was also there.

“They say to me, ‘You do not know how it was in the Nineties here’, and I say: ‘I do know, I was there!” she says, laughing: “My dad, I, who was a 15-year-old at the time, and my five-year-old sister came to Belgrade at the protests and practically spent three months on the streets.”

However, that was not her first step into activism. The year before, aged only 14, she organized an anti-nuclear protest in Sidney.

“We ended up on the news, like 3,000 students protesting, some schools were locked in order that others would not join us, we gathered in front of the French embassy, it was crazy,” Novakovic explains.

Novakovic later on volunteered to work with refugees during her time at college, since refugees and migrants are treated roughly in Australia, she says. As a by then established actress, she also worked in Los Angeles on jail reforms with different associations.

However, the campaign against Rio Tinto project was first time she entered the spotlight as an activist in a “leading role”.

“I never looked for it, it just happened,” she says. “The Kreni-promeni [Move-Change] organization called, since they’d seen me on a protest against police violence in US, and asked me for tips how to send a petition to the UN,” she recalls.

“After that, we organized a huge zoom meeting with activists and many Serbs in the diaspora who wanted to help as well, and realized that this is our struggle, the key issue. Everything just went on after that naturally,” she says.

Trump election was a wakeup call

From a young age, she says, her worldview had been linked with “the injustices of the global system”, but the year 2016 and Donald Trump’s election as President of United States was a turning point for her, when she became more active.

“When he won the election, I was like: ‘How is this possible, what world are we are living in?’ That pushed me more to learn about the history and systematic construction of the ‘westworld’ – about colonialism and the corporate – not political – system in the US,” she explains.

Asked why she dislikes Rio Tinto so much, she says that “wherever they go, there make problems for local people”, adding that she has worked with some Australian Aborigines who were victims of Rio Tinto misconduct in 2020.

“Also, to be clear, the lithium itself does not solve anything. Lithium will not create an electric car and for batteries you need cobalt … which comes from Congo, and we all know what is going on there,” she says.

“We do not want lithium mined in Serbia, we want those villages to remain green areas with fertile land, where food can be grown and where there are hundreds of species of animals, as there are right now,” Novakovic told BIRN.

According to Novakovic, industry needs to adapt and adjust to already existing resources and create a sustainable system of resource extraction.

“The solution is not to save the car industry, but green surfaces and biodiversity. The idea of mining a green area and calling it ‘green transition’ is absurd; it is crystal clear that profits are behind it all,” she insists.

Asked how her activism has affected her acting career, she says that it is tough, but that she was always like this, often refusing roles that could have made her wildly rich and famous.

“My father tried to teach me how to enter more commercial world and make healthier decisions for my career but I never make many compromises. Now I would make them, but I am too old for it,” she says, laughing, adding that she once refused a role in a sci-fi movie with Bruce Willis because the director wanted her to be naked.

Asked whether she think the campaigners will tire of the battle, since many powerful actors support the Rio Tinto Serbia project, she says no.

“The ruling [Serbian Progressive] party led by President Aleksandar Vucic} is putting a lot of pressure on us. Vucic is a neo-liberal, the nationalistic stuff is just a pose for voters, and he is ready to sell everything. The company [Rio Tinto] has a lot of money and they are very good at their jobs and creating anxiety – but that will not scare us,” Novakovic told BIRN.

“They are very patient – but so are we,” she concluded.

If, in addition to 11,400 tons of metal lithium, 100,000 electric cars were produced annually in Serbia, this would increase carbon dioxide emissions by at least 1.15 million tons or by an additional 3.5 percent.

In addition to the justified concern for damage (pollution of underground and surface water, devastation of forests and agricultural land…) that can be produced by the mine and processing plants for obtaining compounds of lithium and boron in the Jadar valley, there are also less well-known harmful consequences that these activities, and possibly starting the production of electric cars in Serbia, can have.

According to data published in February 2021 by the Rio Sava Exploration company itself, the mine would annually produce about 60,000 tons of lithium carbonate (Li2CO2) or about 11,400 tons of metallic lithium. Without going into the issue of mining, the brochure states that the processing plant would consume… 80.8 million cubic meters of natural gas per year, which would increase the consumption of that energy source in Serbia by 3.1 percent, given that In 2020, 2,265.96 million cubic meters were consumed.

The annual emission of carbon dioxide CO2, the main cause of global warming, in the technological process of lithium carbonate and boric acid production would be between 526,000 and 620,000 tons, which is an increase of 1.22 to 1.44 percent of the total emission in Serbia, which in 2020 amounted to 43 million tons. In that estimate, in addition to CO2 emissions, due to the burning of 80.8 million cubic meters of natural gas and during the production of other necessary chemicals that would be used in the technology of obtaining lithium carbonate and boric acid, as well as the effects of the use of 60,000 tons of calcium oxide (quick lime ), 320,000 tons of sulfuric acid, 188,000 tons of different types of cement, 110,000 tons of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) for the deposition of lithium carbonate, while on the other hand, the destruction of more than 520 hectares of forest and agricultural land will permanently destroy the assimilation of atmospheric carbon dioxide . This assessment does not include gas emissions from various means of transport, bulldozers, trucks, commercial passenger cars, necessary for the functioning of the mine, production plant and administration.

According to official announcements, Serbia is ready to invest significant funds in a gigafactory for the production of lithium-ion accumulator batteries (LIB), and later also electric cars. With an optimistic estimate that 100,000 electric cars with a 50kWh energy battery will be produced annually, this would increase carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 500,000 tons or 1.16 percent, as it is known that one kWh energy batteries emit about 100 kilograms of CO2 during production. For the production of electric cars without batteries, which include various metals, plastics, glass, rubber, approximately five to six tons of CO2 are emitted per vehicle, or 500,000 to 600,000 tons for 100,000 vehicles, which would increase emissions by 1.16 to 1.4 percent.

All together, the production of lithium and 100,000 electric cars would annually emit about 1,150,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, which means that the annual emission of greenhouse gases would increase by at least 3.5 percent.

In other words, each car would emit about 11,500 kilograms of CO2. The same amount of CO2 would be emitted by the consumption of 4,420 liters of diesel in ordinary cars (a liter of diesel releases 2.6 kilograms of CO2). This means that with an average consumption of five liters per 100 kilometers, a diesel car would travel 88,400 kilometers before the electric car even leaves the factory.

The EU is planning or has introduced taxes of 50 euros per ton of CO2, so increased emissions would expose Serbia to a cost of at least 75 million euros per year (50 euros times 1,150,000 tons). In addition, it should be noted that the production of just one kWh of lithium-ion battery requires 328kWh of different types of energy, and Serbia, in addition to importing gas and oil, has been importing electricity for more than a year, and the prices of all energy products are at record levels.

With all that, even if Serbia were to produce 100,000 electric cars a year, which is unlikely, with a 50kWh battery, it would require about 800 tons of lithium metal. So, only seven percent of the total annual production in Jadar, while Rio Tinto could sell the remaining 93 percent to whoever it wants. Of course, Serbia would also buy lithium from them at realistic, market prices.

In addition to lithium (its share ranges from four to ten percent), positive (cathode) materials contain many other expensive and rare metals, cobalt, manganese and nickel, which Serbia does not have and would have to be imported, and the price of cobalt on the world market has varied from 30,000 to 90,000 dollars per ton in the last five years…

For the full article click here.

The Bureau of the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats has decided to put on standby the complaint from domestic and European NGOs against the Government of Serbia regarding the Jadar lithium project. It will closely monitor further developments and activate the complaint if the project is restarted, Earth Thrive said.

In September 2021, a Complaint was filed with the International Convention for the Protection of Flora and Fauna against the proposed ‘Jadar’ lithium mine. The Convention’s Bureau recently decided to put the Complaint on ‘standby’, announcing that they will carefully observe the further development of the situation around the project, ready to open the dossiers if the Jadar project is officially revived.

Concerned about the huge threat of destruction that the proposed Jadar lithium mine would pose to Nature in Serbia, the international organisation Earth Thrive, which deals with the rights of Nature in Europe, worked with local organisations Protect Jadar and Radjevina and the international Earth Law Center partners on a Complaint to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Flora and Wildlife Habitats, based on the potential endangerment of protected species in the area of the proposed mine. For more information on the complaint you can go to London Mining Network.

The decision of the Bureau of the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats is very important for the locals and NGOs as they doubt the project is really terminated, which is what the Government of Serbia has announced. Of note, Rio Tinto recently said it is ready to renegotiate its Jadar project.

Zoe Lujić, founder and director of Earth Thrive, and Marija Alimpić from the Protect Jadar and Rađevina association told Balkan Green Energy News that the bureau is concerned about significant negative effects the construction of lithium mines would have on protected wild species and habitats.

Serbia is a signatory to the Bern Convention, which is legally binding. The complaint against the government regarding Rio Tinto’s project was filed by Earth Thrive in cooperation with the Earth Law Center and local association Protect Jadar and Rađevina.

They filed the complaint in September of last year, warning of potential risks to protected species in the area where the exploitation and processing of jadarite ore were planned. A few weeks before the response deadline, in late January, the Serbian government decided to suspend the project.

The Bureau of the Bern Convention put the case on standby and told the Ministry of Environmental Protection in a letter that it is ready to reactivate it if the project is restarted.

The bureau also asked the government to submit a report on the progress of the cancellation of the Jadar project. It also asked for regular reports on its status.

For more information and to read the full article go to Balkan Green Energy News.

Serbia pulled the plug this year on a $2.4 billion lithium mining project. Here’s how it all began, and why it’s still not over.

In 1997, a letter from Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto landed on the desk of Professor Jelena Obradovic at Belgrade’s Faculty of Mining and Geology.

In the mid-1990s, a team led by Obradovic and involving her then research assistant, Nenad Grubin, had conducted an analysis of areas in the former Yugoslavia that they believed might hold deposits of borate and lithium. They produced a series of journal articles that Rio Tinto says caught the eye of its own researchers in the United States.

Following the letter, Rio Tinto dispatched a team of geologists and Grubin gave them a tour of western Serbia, one region that the faculty’s team had identified as potentially a good place to explore.

“Together with the guests, we visited the fields around Valjevo, Gornji Milanovac, Zlatibor, Aleksinac, Raska,” Grubin told BIRN. “Apart from field trips, we had meetings at the faculty, we visited mines in Serbia, in order to get a picture of the geology and mining of our fields, as well as our country itself.”

At the time, Serbia was still an international pariah under Slobodan Milosevic, who would be toppled by popular street protests in 2000. When the country opened up its market, Rio Tinto wasted little time in establishing a Serbian subsidiary in 2001, with Grubin at the helm.

Three years later, the company struck ‘white gold’ in western Serbia, kicking off a venture that promised to become the biggest lithium mine in Europe until environmentalists and worried residents whipped up a protest movement that this year forced the government to call it off.

This is the story of how it all began, and why some Serbs believe it won’t stop.

First time lucky

As he described it in a text he authored for the Serbian newspaper Politika in October last year, Grubin “loved teaching and science, but my entrepreneurial and research spirit kicked in so I moved to Rio Tinto.”

It was 2001; Milosevic had just been overthrown and the West was lifting sanctions that, alongside the effects of a decade of war, had crippled the Serbian economy and driven a dramatic ‘brain drain’ of talent.

Grubin had left Serbia for Canada with his family in 1999, working part-time as a “contract geologist” for Rio Tinto, he told BIRN, on projects in Ontario and concerning the former Yugoslavia. He officially left the faculty in Belgrade in 2001 and became Rio Tinto’s director in Serbia.

“When foreign investors appeared, a large number of our geologists found refuge there,” recalled Zoran Stevanovic, a retired professor of the Faculty of Mining and Geology and former president of the Serbian Geological Society. “They moved to foreign companies, but also their knowledge, and certain maps and data they had, moved with them. It’s hard to blame them for wanting to do their job somewhere,” he said, citing a lack of state funding or support for geological research.

In 2004, working in the Jadar River basin of western Serbia for Rio Tinto, Grubin was one of four geologists who were credited with discovering ‘jadarite’, a new mineral made up of both borates and lithium and which, to the delight of headline writers around the world, was found three years later to boast a chemical make-up almost identical to that ascribed to the green Kryptonite that saps Superman’s powers in the 2006 movie ‘Superman Returns’.

Rio Tinto had only just received its exploration permit, which, Grubin recalled in a March 2021 interview with Bizlife, “covered a huge area of more than sixty square kilometres, which is only a part of the entire basin. We had a budget for only two wells, but we succeeded at the first attempt.” Grubin told BIRN they had been looking for borate, not necessarily lithium. Finding jadarite with the first drill was “phenomenal news for us,” he said.

Some 15 years later, Rio Tinto was readying the ground for a $2.4 billion lithium mine that would position the company, for the next 15 years at least, as the largest supplier in Europe of the soft, silvery-white metal that is essential to the batteries powering the electric cars that are supposed to replace fossil-fuel vehicles on Europe’s roads.

‘It’s over’. But is it?

In 2020, Rio Tinto registered gross sales revenue of $44.6 billion, or roughly $8 billion shy of the total value of the Serbian economy that year. And it was flexing its muscles.

Rio Tinto donated to local communities, hospitals, schools and cultural centres and, according to the Centre for Investigative Journalism Serbia, CINS, bought up more than 40 per cent of the 250 acres of land where the mine would be located.

In July last year, Loznica local authorities amended the municipality’s spatial plan in order to align it with the spatial plan already adopted for the special purpose area of the Jadar project, previously adopted by Governments Decree. Agricultural land was reclassified as construction land, railway lines were moved and gas pipeline plans changed. All that, even before the project had received the necessary permits.

According to the Podrinje Anti-Corruption Team, PAKT, an NGO in western Serbia and fierce critic of the Rio Tinto project, the Faculty of Mining and Geology has earned more than million euros from Rio Tinto for research work. Professor Biljana Abolmasov, the dean of the faculty, told BIRN the sum was around one million, but over a period of 17 years. “The work of our experts costs,” she said, but denied Rio Tinto had any influence over the objectivity of the faculty’s staff. Rio Tinto has not confirmed the sum.

Environmentalists, however, warned of huge potential damage to water and land in western Serbia, regardless of Rio Tinto’s vow to invest $100 million in environmental protection.

In January this year, following months of escalating protests and growing public anger, Serbia’s government announced it had blocked the project. “Everything is finished. It’s over,” Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said, possibly with one eye on an April 4 election in which the ruling Progressive Party and its leader, President Aleksandar Vucic, fear losing control of the capital, Belgrade.

But lithium mining in Serbia did not die. Rio Tinto remains. As do four other companies, some of them with ties to Grubin’s older brother, Jovan, and a host of former Rio Tinto employees.

“You need to be extremely naive to believe Vucic’s jiggery-pokery,” said Miroslav Mijatovic, head of PAKT.

“The company [Rio Tinto] registered another plot on February 11, and they actually act on the field as if absolutely nothing happened,” Mijatovic added, alluding to cadastral data and the accounts of locals that show Rio Tinto continues to buy up land in the Jadar basin and has registered ownership of three new plots since January 27 this year.

Serbian President Vucic, PM Ana Brnabic met Rio Tinto delegation. June 2021. Photo: Serbia’s Presidency

Biologist Vladimir Stevanovic, president of the Committee for the Study of Flora and Vegetation at the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science, SANU, said he had no doubt lithium exploration in Serbia would continue given the interest of foreign firms.

“There is no doubt about it,” he said. “The government’s move to stop the Rio Tinto project for now is just a way to pacify the rebels. Unfortunately, we became a colony for the extraction of natural resources. But lithium exploitation under those circumstances is just slaying an ox for a pound of meat.”

Find full article on Balkan Insight