Rio Tinto pledges public dialogue over $3.3b Serbian lithium mine

Rio Tinto says it is considering the concerns of residents in western Serbia after a municipality scrapped a plan to allocate land for a lithium project.

The mining group wants to develop the mine near Loznica in the western Jadar river valley to extract lithium, a vital ingredient for batteries for electric vehicles, while another product, borates, are used in solar panels and wind turbines.

The Jadar Valley in Serbia, where Rio Tinto plans a new lithium mine. 

But last week Loznica’s municipal assembly scrapped a plan which would allocate land for the project.

A Rio Tinto spokesperson said the miner would work to improve the way it engaged with and listened to the community and “will continue to work with a wide group of local and global experts across all aspects of the environmental, social and governance impacts of the Jadar project”.

The Beta news agency on Thursday (Friday AEDT) quoted the CEO of Rio’s Serbian arm as saying Rio plans a pause during which it will engage in a public dialogue about the project, which has stirred protests by environmental groups.

“We want to call for a public dialogue, to acquaint residents with all aspects of our project,” Beta quoted Vesna Prodanovic, who is CEO of Rio Sava Exploration, as saying.

Ms Prodanovic said Rio also planned to “reconsider and possibly improve” technical solutions it wanted to use for the mine.

Earlier this year, Rio said any development would meet all domestic and European Union environmental standards, but activists say it would cause irreparable damage.

When Rio Tinto announced the Jadar lithium project in Serbia in July, it must have seemed like a slam dunk for new chief executive Jakob Stausholm.

The company’s $US2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) project is part of Serbian government efforts to bring in more investment and boost economic growth.

In recent weeks, green groups have staged protests and blocked roads across the country, demanding authorities end the project, causing a political headache for the ruling coalition loyal to President Aleksandar Vucic ahead of April elections.

“It is extremely difficult in such an intense anti-mining and negative campaign to have a reasonable debate on any topic,” the report quoted Ms Prodanovic as saying.

Mr Vucic has repeatedly said that opening the mine would depend on the outcome of an environmental study and a referendum on it.