Robert Hodgson 06.02.2025 Euronews.
The European Union needs lithium for its energy transition and is eagerly eyeing huge reserves in northern Serbia, but twenty years after making the discovery in the Jadar valley, Rio Tinto’s ambitions to mine the site remain stuck in a mire of environmental opposition and Balkan politics.
Serbian activists were joined by leftist MEPs outside the European Parliament building to protest against the screening of a documentary film on Rio Tinto’s battle with the Serbian authorities, and local environmentalists who the Anglo-Australian mining giant claims have been misled by a shadowy disinformation campaign.
Filmmaker Peter Tom Jones – who heads the Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals at KU Leuven university presented his documentary Not in my Country in the European parliament on Wednesday (5 February) at the invitation of MEPs Hildegarde Bentele (Germany/EPP) and Yvan Verougstraete (Belgium/Renew).
The film makes a strong case for mining lithium in Europe, with Jones arguing it is essential for the energy transition and hence tackling global heating, and underlining the fact that the EU is currently almost entirely dependent on China for the raw materials needed for battery production. The documentary raises the prospect of thousands of new jobs, with processing and production taking place in Serbia itself.
It also gives Rio Tinto a platform to present its promise to abide by the highest environmental and social standards, dismiss concerns voiced by protesters over radioactivity and pollution by dangerous acid – and to profess contrition over past mistakes, notably blasting an ancient aboriginal burial site in Juukan Gorge, Western Australia, in 2020 to expand an iron ore mine.
EU partnership
The Jadar mine issue burst back onto the news agenda last July when protests erupted after Serbia’s constitutional court reversed a 2022 decision by the government of president Aleksandar Vučić to withdrew planning approval for the 220-hectare site amid widespread public opposition.
Within days, Vučić had inked a ‘strategic partnership’ on critical raw materials with the EU, at a summit in the Serbian capital attended by European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. August saw a mass protest in the capital Belgrade, followed by reports of intimidation, surveillance and the arrest of activists by the Serbian security services.
For full article go to EuroNews.
