The Regulatory Institute for Renewable Energy and the Environment (RERI) has said that the Ministry of Mining and Energy is unjustifiably extending the deadline for Rio Tinto to obtain a license for lithium mining in Serbia.

Rio Tinto has been trying for more than two years to obtain approval to open a lithium exploration mine in Serbia and it needs a document that allows it to start mining lithium in Serbia, despite the fact that it did not attach the necessary documentation to the relevant application, RERI added.

The Serbian government did say that the Rio Tinto lithium project in Serbia had been stopped and that all line authorities would immediately suspend all relevant procedures.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Mining and Energy has not stopped the procedure for issuing the permit for lithium exploitation, but over the course of two years, without giving clear reasons, extended the deadline for the company to complete the documentation 11 times.

“Rio Tinto does not have the document on determining the scope and content of the environmental impact assessment study, because it was canceled in January of last year,” says Hristina Vojvodić, RERI’s legal advisor.

Although the company filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court against the annulment decision, this does not constitute a justified reason for extending the deadline for supplementing the relevant documentation, the statement added.

(Nova Ekonomija) Full article at Serbian Monitor

Environmental organizations have sent a clear message to Rio Tinto’s shareholders: the company’s insistence to carry on with the formally canceled project will only strengthen the opposition to it and the possibility of social unrest, carrying with it financial and political risk, the Marš sa Drine initiative and Earth Thrive said.

The protest was joined by the WeMove Europe and London Mining Network, which organized the arrival of activists from Arizona, Madagascar, and Serbia. A titanium mine is planned in Arizona, while in the island country Rio Tinto is operating a copper mine.

Of note, in 2023 Rio Tinto marks 150 years of operation.

Rio Tinto is not welcome in Serbia, activists said during the protest, which is part of a campaign called Rio Tinto: Against People, Climate and Nature and the International Day of Action against Rio Tinto.

The environmentalists also took 500,000 signatures to the door of Rio Tinto’s headquarters in London.

The representative of Serbian activists in London, Nebojša Petrović, a resident of the affected village of Gornje Nedeljice in the country’s west and a member of the Ne damo Jadar association, took the opportunity to ask the company’s officials why it hasn’t left Serbia after the spatial plan for a lithium mine and processing plant was annulled, and why it keeps buying land from private owners.

“The Ne damo Jadar association will fight Rio Tinto together with all other environmental organizations until it drives you out of Serbia,” Petković said.

He later explained he didn’t get any straightforward answer and that he also asked why the company insists on the project after the Serbian experts said that its implementation is the path to an ecological disaster.

They just said it was not true, Petković added.

Full article on Balkan Green Energy News

The ‘Kreni – Promeni’ (‘Go-Change’)” campaign staged a performance on Friday outside the US Embassy building in Belgrade in protest against US Ambassador Christopher Hill’s support for the Rio Tinto company and lithium mining. Following the performance, the Ambassador stepped outside to talk to the performers.

Campaign director Savo Manojlovic said they came to express their dissatisfaction with the Ambassador’s statement that Rio Tinto is not just an ordinary mining project and that the US is trying to support this company in Serbia.

He described Hill’s statement as completely impermissible and said they deeply believe it is contrary to the values of the Ambassador’s country.

He noted that when talking about democracy, Thomas Jefferson said that “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny,” and that a people’s initiative to ban lithium mining was submitted to the Serbian Parliament last year which, contrary to the Constitution, has still not been put on the agenda.

Manojlovic reminded the US Ambassador that mass protests have been held in Serbia against lithium mining and told him that, if the US has interest in Serbia, it will not support the Rio Tinto project in any way.

Hill told Manojlovic that he gave the statement on lithium to the Glas Sumadije (Voice of Sumadija) portal and that he very much respects local media and seriously replies to all their questions the same way he does when speaking for big media outlets.

The Ambassador said his second principle is to be frank, so he told Manojlovic that he will be frank with him too.

I want to be clear – how Serbs decide on their economy, development, on what raw materials they will use, that is Serbia’s business, said Hill, adding that nothing any foreign diplomat says will change that.

He said Glas Sumadije asked him for his opinion on lithium and that he said he believes Serbia needs more green energy. Lithium has to do with electric vehicles, that will be Serbia’s decision, but Serbia needs more electric cars, and that is part of modern economy, said Hill.

The Ambassador emphasized that the decision on this matter is for Serbia to make, but that he has the right to voice his opinion.

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US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill said that Rio Tinto is not just an ordinary mining project because it will be tied to the modern economy and added that he is trying to cooperate on this issue with the Serbian Government.

I think it is important for people to understand that this is not just a mining project, a project in which something is extracted from the ground and exported. This project will be tied to the modern economy. The lithium extracted from the ground will be used for the production of batteries that will be installed in electric vehicles, Hill said in an interview with the Glas Sumadije portal.

He said he is trying to cooperate with the Serbian Government on this issue and that the US is trying to support Rio Tiinto that is partly, although not entirely, an American company.

I think it is very important that all those involved in this project respect the environment, that is the first rule, said Hill.

The Ambassador said effort should be made to point out to the citizens the need for this project to connect them with the green agenda, the green economy, because that is where they belong.

He assessed that this is a very complex issue that people living in this area should focus on, adding he believes everything will turn out fine if everyone works together and keeps in mind the needs of the future.

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.

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.

Environmentalist organizations EKO Društvena akcija and Marš sa Drine initiated the signing of the Jadar Declaration and the resulting international cooperation.

The document was signed by Serbian activists Zlatko Kokanović from Ne damo Jadar, Biljana Novaković from Marš sa Drine, Milica Damnjanović from Extinction Rebellion and Aleksandar Matković from EKO Društvena akcija, Portuguese environmentalists Cheila Rodrigues from Extinction Rebellion and Rafaela Aleixo from Fridays for the Future, Ramón Balcázar Morales from Observatorio Plurinacional de Salares Andinos from Chile, Alejandro Palamo Rey from Plataforma Salvemos la Montaña from Spain and Robin Sommer from German organization Sand im Getriebe.

International organization Environmental Justice Atlas, which maps environmental struggles worldwide, announced support for the declaration.

The document was signed in Gornje Nedeljice, a Serbian village known for the resistance of its inhabitants and protests against Rio Tinto’s lithium project. The activists said the other goal of the Jadar Declaration is to include the wider public and other organizations in an international network of solidarity to support every individual in exercising the universal human right to a healthy environment.

Read the full article at Balkan Green Energy News.

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.

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.

Roads were blocked for an hour on Thursday over the geological research being done by the company on two plots of land in the Lukavac village outside the city of Valjevo. The local residents were joined by activists of the Ecological Uprising, Get out of Kolubara and Get out of Drina organizations. Activists of Start-Change and We Won’t Give Up Jadar organizations which have also been protesting against the exploration of alleged lithium deposits in western Serbia and the ensuing pollution of farm land, weren’t there, but supported the protest.

Activist Gordana Jelisavcevic told N1 that Euro Lithium has made some 50 bore holes in the area over the past 10 years, some of which have leaked, polluting land and wells and leaving local people with no water. She said that the local authorities have been informed of the latest geological exploration but have not reacted. She said that a well in Lukavac was polluted but that its owner was not aware of the problem and used the water for his household for several years and added that a road was quickly built over land where another bore hole leaked.

She said that Euro Lithium is planning to dig 500 bore holes to explore the Valjevo area for lithium.

A press release from the company said that the exploration was being discontinued to avoid any tense situation. “Considering the fact that we value the health and integrity of our employees and members of the local community and the fact that small organized groups came into contact with staff in the field and to avoid any, even the slightest unpleasant situation, we decided on April 28, 2022 to discontinue the exlporation,” the press release said.

It said that Euro Lithium Balkan d.o.o. based in Divce outside Valjevo started geological exploration on April 26 with a valid permit based on a project approved by the Ministry of Mining and Energy.

Serbian Mining and Energy Minister zorana Mihajlovic said earlier that environmental problems can’t be solved on the streets. “This ministry revoked three lithium exploration permits for the Euro Lithium company,” she said.

Source: N1 Belgrade

The two plots of land are several hundred meters apart. An N1 crew was told on Tuesday by a man who said he was a Euro Lithium employee that the land was private property and asked the crew to leave. He told N1 that the company was renting the land.

Lawyer Sreten Djordjevic, leader of the protest, said that one of the exploration sites could be inside the Valjevo-Mionica Basin. “If that is true then Euro Lithium staff have committed a crime and we will do everything to send them to jail,” he told N1. The Higher Court in Valjevo issued a temporary ban on Euro Lithium’s geological exploration in December 2021, pending a motion filed with the Ministry of Mining and Energy to grant the local population an equal status in deciding about the basin and refuse the Canadian company an extension of its exploration permit. Euro Lithium said on its web portal that its “cornerstone project, situated approximately 10km outside Valjevo is our title to a pair of mineral exploration licenses that appear to contain a significant deposit of borates, lithium and other critical raw materials”.

The resident of Lukavac said a day earlier that the land could be sold but that environmental issues are of concern to everyone and demanded an end to the exploration.

The N1 reporter said that local residents told her that several of the bores have leaked onto neighboring land polluting wells used for crop irrigation.

The Serbian government withdrew permits for the Rio Tinto company’s Jadar lithium mine project outside Loznica in western Serbia following protests. The authorities also pledged not to allow the project to go ahead during the campaign leading up to the April 3 elections.

Source rs.n1info.com