One of Europe’s largest lithium reserves is said to be located in western Serbia – now the government has given the green light for mining. According to media reports, Scholz is due to travel to Serbia on Friday.
Despite years of protests by environmental activists, Serbia’s government is paving the way for lithium mining in the Jadar Valley in the west of the country. This is reported by the Serbian news agency Tanjug. One of Europe’s largest reserves of this globally scarce raw material, which is important for the electric car industry, among other things, is said to be located near the town of Loznica. With a new regulation, Belgrade bowed to a ruling made a few days earlier by the Serbian Constitutional Court. According to this, the annulment of the spatial planning procedure for the lithium mining project in 2022 was unlawful.
Lithium plays an important role in the construction of electric vehicles, but reserves are scarce, especially in Europe. According to Serbian media reports, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to travel to Serbia on Friday to investigate the mining. A request to the German government on this matter initially remained unanswered.
The Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been interested in the project for years and has already acquired real estate in the region. Serbia’s Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic, said that this project represents the future of Serbia’s economic integration into Europe.
According to Rio Tinto’s estimates, this mine can produce 58,000 tons of lithium annually, Serbian media reported. This would cover the needs of 1.1 million electric vehicles, which corresponds to about 17 percent of European production.
Environmentalists criticize, among other things, that lithium mining pollutes groundwater with heavy metals and therefore poses a threat to local residents’ drinking water supplies.
Report on Lithium Regulation, Serbian
Source: Stern
