In a few months, possibly by the end of the year, Rio Tinto should complete a feasibility study on the basis of which construction will begin next year and in 2026 the opening of a jadarite mine in the Loznica area.
The document that is awaited and contains the technical data necessary to obtain permits for this job, includes three environmental impact studies, but it seems that neither for the government nor for outraged citizens who oppose this job, there is no doubt what this research will look like.
Environmental and other activists from Western Serbia, who are already organizing protests, claim that the entire, otherwise fertile agricultural area will be completely devastated, that the exploitation and above-ground processing of ore will permanently damage the water system and land, and that there are still no estimates about the damage that will be inflicted on the population of that area by processing the ore.
However, they do not believe that any of these dilemmas will be found in the study.
On these accusations, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, says, before the study proved that, that the Loznica area is not threatened by any ecological catastrophe, and that he “covers” it with an offer that should calm the citizens – conditioned by the construction of a factory of lithium batteries, a product due to which this mineral is otherwise at a high price.
For the Prime Minister, again before the published study, the deal with Rio Tinto is “unquestionable”, “very important for Serbia and will be done according to the highest standards”.
So important that, before the research was completed, the Spatial Plan was already changed, as the first step towards the realization of a project that is considered to be of national interest.
Again, without completing the study on which the permits for construction, opening of the mine and exploitation depend, the land on the location provided for that has already been renamed from agricultural to construction.
Finally, before the study was completed, Rio Tinto started buying land in the Loznica area for the purpose of forming a mine.
Although officials claim that this is the job of the century for Serbia, because it is estimated that as much as ten percent of the world’s lithium reserves are in the Jadarite deposit, they have not yet shown a precise calculation of what the state gained and what it lost in that endeavor. Civic movements, however, are.
– In ten years of exploitation, when the value of investments that they say will reach between 1.5 and 1.7 billion euros is deducted, and they take into account the current prices of three basic planned products, lithium carbonate from which batteries for electric vehicles are made, then boric acid and sodium sulfate, Rio Tinto will earn about four billion euros. At the same time, the state will collect an ore rent from them, which amounts to five percent for lithium, somewhere around 7.6 million euros and another 23.4 million in taxes, ie about 30 million a year or 300 million euros for a decade. The company’s earnings will be more than ten times higher without anyone taking into account the damage due to the devastated area and the impact of that production on human health – Miroslav Mijatovic from the Podrinje Anti-Corruption Team (PAKT) told Danas.
The Association is collecting signatures of citizens in the center of Loznica in order to submit to the Constitutional Court the initiative for assessing the legality of the Government decree which proclaimed the Spatial Plan of special purpose for the Jadarite mine.
They claim that the Government is clientelistic and that, despite the protest of the population, it is busy working on opening the mine.
On the other hand, the company that operates in Serbia under the name Rio Sava Exploration, yesterday organized a conversation with several environmental associations in order to present to them the attention with which it approaches the study and environmental protection.
In the presentation of the project, Rio Tinto states that 1.5 billion euros will be invested in the next four years, of which the mining part is about 30 percent, while two thirds of the investment goes to an industrial plant that is above ground and where chemical treatment of ore will get three products – boric acid, sodium sulfate, which, among other things, are used in the glass industry, fertilizers, detergents, as well as lithium carbonate intended for the production of batteries for electric vehicles, Danas reports.
