Rio Tinto is moving in to open a lithium mine, but locals say they will die first

“All of us here are ready to lose our lives,” the 48-year-old farmer told The Associated Press. “They can shoot. That’s the only way I can open the mine.”

At stake is a lush agricultural valley in western Serbia that holds one of Europe’s richest deposits of lithium, a precious metal that is used to make batteries for electric cars and is crucial to the global transition to green energy.

Whether or not there should be a mine in the valley has become one of the Balkan nation’s most contentious issues, sparking protests by thousands in a challenge to populist President Aleksandar Vučić.

While the government insists the mine is an opportunity for economic development, critics say it would cause irreparable pollution to the Jadar valley, along with groundwater reserves, farmland and two small rivers that flow through the valley.

“We will die on this earth”

Thousands of people are expected to turn out for a major rally in the capital Belgrade on Saturday, demanding a law banning lithium mining anywhere in Serbia.

Kokanovic will be there with his group “Ne Damo Jadar” or “We Won’t Give up Jadar”.

“We don’t care about their profits. We were raised on this land and we will die on this land,” said Kokanović, who has five children. “This land does not belong to anyone, it belongs to our children.”

The exploration of lithium and boron deposits in the Jadar valley has been done by the multinational company Rio Tinto for 20 years. The company has drawn up plans to open a mine.

Throughout its 150-year history, Rio Tinto has faced allegations of corruption, environmental degradation and human rights abuses at its mining sites, a history that has alarmed residents of Jadar and environmental groups in Serbia .

Mass protests in 2021 and 2022 forced Serbia’s government to temporarily suspend the mine plan, only to revive it in July before signing a memorandum on “critical raw materials” with the EU in the presence of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

A climate solution

Dubravka Djedović Handanović, Serbia’s mining and energy minister, told the AP in an interview that the Jadar valley contains about 158 ​​million tons of lithium, or about 17 percent of the total estimated reserves on the European continent.

Jadar, she said, is “one of the best-explored lithium sites in Europe and probably one of the best in the world” and could “put Serbia (as) the biggest country not only in Europe but and globally” when it comes to combating climate change.

Djedović Handanović’s signature is on the EU memorandum providing for a “strategic partnership” on sustainable raw materials, battery supply chains and electric vehicles. The plan is not only to export raw materials, but also to stimulate new technologies in Serbia.

Any potential excavations will meet the EU’s highest standards, Handanović said, promising “we will do nothing if this has such a negative impact that it will be harmful”.

“In that case, the project will not be developed,” she said, complaining of “misinformation” allegedly being spread about the project.

In response, the government has set up a call center and medical team to monitor any potential health risks, she said.

While it could push Serbia closer to the EU and help reduce the lithium bloc’s dependence on China, critics say the risks of lithium mining still outweigh the benefits.

Serbia is a candidate nation for EU membership, but also has close ties to Russia and China. China owns the largest copper mine in eastern Serbia.

Development or exploitation?

Dragana Djordjević, a research professor at the University of Belgrade and an expert in environmental chemistry, is part of a group of Serbian scientists who found in a study that the land in the Jadar valley had already been damaged during exploration.

Jadar, Djordjević said, is an agricultural area with groundwater and rivers that often flood and could carry any toxic material downstream. The mine is “a huge risk to the whole region,” she said.

Rio Tinto has said it will build an underground mine in compliance with EU safety standards. In a brief email to the AP, the company’s Serbian subsidiary said it “favors fact-based public dialogue” and cited a separate environmental study project urging those concerned to submit comments.

Officials said the mine would not open before 2028. Vučić described the current anti-lithium protests as political, orchestrated by unspecified foreign powers and directed against him and the government.

In the valley, properties owned by the company Rio Tinto Sava are marked with “no trespassing” signs and sealed with plastic tape. The mine would encompass about 500 acres of the sprawling valley, which is dotted with corn and soybean fields.

Vladan Jakovljević, who is over 60 years old, lives in the village of Stupnica in the hills overlooking the valley. Neither will he give up his way of life, the hives and a healthy environment for his family.

If the mine opens, he argued, “there would be no life for us.”

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AP reporter Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.

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