{"id":628,"date":"2022-03-08T16:51:47","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T16:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/?p=628"},"modified":"2025-05-14T10:48:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T10:48:48","slug":"serbia-scraps-plans-for-rio-tinto-lithium-mine-after-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/serbia-scraps-plans-for-rio-tinto-lithium-mine-after-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardian: Serbia scraps Rio Tinto lithium mine after protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Guardian. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government revokes lithium mining licences after being accused of ignoring project\u2019s potential for environmental harm<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Serbian government has revoked the lithium mining licences granted to the Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto after growing opposition to the company\u2019s plans and souring relations with Australia after the deportation of Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ana Brnabi\u0107, the Serbian prime minister, who faces a general election in early April, said all decisions and licences regarding Rio Tinto\u2019s plans had been annulled because of environmental concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision in effect pulls the plug on a potential $2.4bn (\u00a31.8bn) investment by Rio Tinto in developing the country\u2019s lithium resources, which could have made Serbia one of the world\u2019s biggest producers of the highly sought-after metal used in the manufacturing of electric vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also comes as relations between Belgrade and Canberra have soured after the high-profile deportation<\/a> of Djokovic from Australia on Sunday before the Australian Open for failing to comply with Covid-19 vaccination rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defending Australian Open champion shared a photograph of the protests against Rio Tinto\u2019s plans with his 10.1 million followers on Instagram, and commented that \u201cclean air, water and food are keys to health\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a televised address, Brnabi\u0107 said the government had \u201cfulfilled all the demands from the environmental protests and have put an end to Rio Tinto in the Republic of Serbia\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio Tinto said late on Thursday that it was \u201cextremely concerned\u201d by the prime minister\u2019s statement. Its share price tumbled on the Australian markets, closing 4.1% lower after its worst intra-day drop since August 2021. In London, Rio\u2019s shares were down more than 3% on Friday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRio Tinto is reviewing the legal basis of this decision and the implications for our activities and our people in Serbia,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week Brnabi\u0107 said the government was prepared to \u201cfight against\u201d any potential lawsuit from Rio Tinto linked to its cancellation of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Thursday\u2019s announcement, activists called on opponents of the mine to increase pressure on the government until it banned future lithium and borate mining projects in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian. Government revokes lithium mining licences after being accused of ignoring project\u2019s potential for environmental harm The Serbian government has revoked the lithium mining licences granted to the Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto after growing opposition to the company\u2019s plans and souring relations with Australia after the deportation of Novak Djokovic. Ana Brnabi\u0107, the Serbian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-info-and-news-en","8":"category-mediji"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","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=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2138,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions\/2138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marssadrine.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}