{"id":1483,"date":"2021-10-25T18:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T18:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2025-05-12T04:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T04:40:21","slug":"lithium_lobbying_too_big_to_fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/lithium_lobbying_too_big_to_fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Li Lobbying: The Mining Plan in Serbia that\u2019s Too Big to Fail<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sasa Dragojlo<\/a> Belgrade<\/a> BIRN<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The permits have yet to be issued and Serbian authorities have mooted the possibility of a referendum, but with so much at stake can \u201cthe voice of the people\u201d really stop mining giant Rio Tinto\u2019s plan to dig Europe\u2019s biggest lithium mine in western Serbia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June this year, amid growing public opposition to a planned $2.4 billion lithium mine in western Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic mooted the possibility of a referendum on the issue, \u201cto see what the people want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe voice of the people is the voice of God,\u201d said Vucic, a former ultranationalist who, at the helm of the ruling Progressive Party, has pursued a neo-liberal economic course since taking power in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With demand for electric vehicle batteries on the rise, Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto wants to start construction work in 2022 on the \u2018Jadar\u2019 lithium mine that promises to become Europe\u2019s biggest in terms of production and will help make the company one of the top 10 lithium producers in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project has triggered significant concern among environmentalists and some residents around the proposed site in Loznica, western Serbia, who say it will devastate the local environment, undermine agriculture and fuel depopulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An environmental impact assessment, or EIA, is still being conducted and permits to start work have not yet been issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while Vucic has promised to listen to the people, a BIRN analysis of the steps already taken, the money involved and the networking of powerful stakeholders suggests the deal is far too big to fail, whatever the \u2018voice of God\u2019 might say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre there some promises and deals behind closed doors? It\u2019s hard to say. But Serbia\u2019s experience shows that foreign investors were regularly protected and supported by the government,\u201d said Zlatko Minic, a board member of Transparency Serbia, a branch of the watchdog Transparency International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For full article go to Balkan Insight <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sasa Dragojlo Belgrade BIRN The permits have yet to be issued and Serbian authorities have mooted the possibility of a referendum, but with so much at stake can \u201cthe voice of the people\u201d really stop mining giant Rio Tinto\u2019s plan to dig Europe\u2019s biggest lithium mine in western Serbia? In June this year, amid growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,79,55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-info-and-news-en","8":"category-general-information","9":"category-foreign-media"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2034,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483\/revisions\/2034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}