The Jadar Lithium Mine In Serbia Faces Renewed Opposition

Rio Tinto plans to renew mining operations in the Jadar Valley (Central European Times).

The EU and Serbia have initiated a strategic partnership in the production of sustainable raw materials via a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Belgrade by the Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal Maroš Šefčovič and Serbia’s Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Đedovič Handanović, on July 19. The agreement, which will bring the EU closer to meeting benchmarks established by the 2023 Raw Materials Act, was issued just one week after the Supreme Court of Serbia overturned its 2022 decision denying the Anglo-Australian corporation Rio Tinto licensing for a proposed mining project in the Jadar Valley amid environmental protests.

Green is Clean?

In 2004, Rio Tinto geologists discovered one of the world’s largest lithium deposits in the Jadar Valley, which is situated in the Mačva District of western Serbia. The site also contains deposits of boron and jadarite, a mineral found nowhere else on Earth. 

Rio Tinto has sought to obtain licensing to mine in the Jadar Valley for nearly a decade. The project would supply “battery grade” lithium that could cover up to 90 percent of Europe’s lithium needs. The EU and the United States have designated the element, used in batteries that power electric vehicles and mobile devices, a “strategically important resource” in light of the global shift toward renewable energy. 

There are few concentrated lithium deposits on Earth. The exploitation of ore rocks has previously taken place in uninhabited zones of Australia, China, Canada, Chile, and Zimbabwe. The Jadar mine would be the first operation of its kind in a populated agricultural area. The largest reservoir of underground drinking water in Serbia is located in the Jadar Valley, which lies between two torrential rivers. The creation of landfills containing high concentrations of boron and arsenic along the coastlines would likely contaminate downstream sections that currently supply water to some 2.5 million people. A 2024 study by Đorđević et al. published in Nature reports elevated concentrations of these minerals since preliminary drilling began, and the environmental impact of the planning phase already exceeds the zone of the prospective mine. Indeed, Rio Tinto’s 2018 patent application for the mineral recovery process did not receive approval from the Environmental Protection Agency until July 2024. 

Rio Tinto has faced criticism in the past for its projects’ adverse impacts on local environments and cultures. In 2000, the construction of a mine in Papua New Guinea allegedly catalyzed a civil war, and in 2020, CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques resigned in the wake of controversy surrounding the company's demolition of a sacred cave in Juukan Gorge, Western Australia. The Government Pension Fund of Norway has even opted to exclude Rio Tinto from its investment portfolio due to severe environmental damage resulting from poor management of the Grasberg mine in Indonesia. 

Environmental protests broke out across Serbia in 2022 in opposition to the proposed Jadar mine. Environmentalists collected some 300,000 signatures demanding that parliament enact legislation to halt lithium exploration. Potentially in an effort to secure voter support for the upcoming election later that year, Serbian president Aleksander Vučić oversaw a Supreme Court ruling that suspended Rio Tinto’s license. Even after the project was formally canceled, however, Rio Tinto spent at least 1.2 million Euros purchasing land in the Jadar Valley. 

Renewed Controversy

The European Union adopted the Critical Raw Materials Act in April 2023, signaling its intent to reduce dependence on China for lithium imports. With this agenda in mind, the aforementioned Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal Maroš Šefčovič and Minister of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia, Dubravka Đedovič Handanović, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Belgrade initiating a partnership between the EU and Serbia in the production of sustainable raw materials on July 19, 2024. This development came just days after the Serbian Supreme Court overturned its 2022 ruling that revoked Rio Tinto’s mining license amid environmental demonstrations. 

President Vučić and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were both present at the summit. As Europe’s top auto manufacturer, Germany has been searching for a secure lithium supply to boost its electric vehicle industry. That same day in Belgrade, representatives of Mercedes Benz and Stellantis inked a letter of intent expressing joint aims to secure an EV battery manufacturing supply chain via Serbia. Before the signing ceremony, Scholz called the Jadar mine “a good project for Serbia” that could provide “opportunities for job creation, not only when it comes to mining, but also in other steps of processing.” This statement contradicts estimations by Đorđević et al., which place the annual agricultural income at 81.86 million euros compared to an ore rent of roughly 16 million euros. 

A distinctly political hue has colored recent environmental protests in Serbia. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Loznica and Šabac in the weeks following the summit, many waving Serbian flags. In Kraljevo, meanwhile, activists openly condemned the government for prioritizing geopolitical aims over the health and prosperity of its citizens. In response to the backlash, President Vučić promised to hold a referendum on the Jadar mine by the end of 2025 and even spent a week doing his duties in Loznica. He additionally stated that no operations would begin before 2028. 

“All of this is getting really political and there’s just a lot of propaganda going on… the media is obviously very divided,” said Loznica resident Dunja Stojanović in an interview. But there are more than just domestic politics at stake: for the EU, the Jadar lithium mine is an opportunity to both diversify away from China and establish closer economic ties with Serbia, one of the few European holdouts in imposing sanctions on Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. With such acute interests, it is improbable that the EU will roll back its support for the project, despite the protests in Serbia.