Rio Sava Exploration, part of the Rio Tinto Corporation, recently announced that the construction of an underground mine for the exploitation of Jadarite near Loznica, from which lithium was obtained for the production of batteries for electric cars, should start next year and last until 2026.
As they stated during the presentation of the project, they are currently working on the preparation of technical documentation, purchase of land, preparation of the Study on environmental impact assessment and obtaining building permits.
The impact on the environment is the topic of many public debates. Numerous activists oppose the construction of the mine and state that it will destroy this part of Serbia. That is exactly what was talked about on Nova S television.
When asked by the host if there would be a mine at all, Margareta Milosavljevic, a senior environmental advisor at Rio Tinto, said that she “hopes it will”, and Miroslav Mijatovic from the Podrinje anti-corruption team explicitly “hopes it will not”.
Mijatovic emphasized several times during the show that the whole process is non-transparent, that there are parts of the company’s studies that are obscured, and that even the names of professors from the Faculty of Mining who did their studies are hidden.
“We are not angry with Rio Tinto, they are behaving as the institutions allow,” Mijatovic emphasized.
Margareta Milosavljevic pointed out that Rio Tinto works in accordance with the law and transparently.
Mijatovic mentioned that it is crucial that there is no answer to the question of how the company will evacuate groundwater, in which there are elevated concentrations of sulfate, chloride…
“We will use that water in production,” said Milosavljevic, and Mijatovic countered by saying that it was a lie.
“How are you going to remove that arsenic? They have no solution for that. What will be in that tailings… They are trying to move it 100 meters from the river Jadar because it is more profitable for them. And yesterday we had floods there,” said Mijatovic.
When asked how they will solve the floods of Jadar if they return the water to it, even if they purify it, Margareta Milosavljevic said that the company will make protection systems that will be approved by the competent institutions, Bonitet reports.
