Serbian top court clears path for Rio Tinto’s Jadar lithium project
The Serbian Constitutional Court said in a ruling on Thursday that the government’s decision in 2022 to revoke Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) spatial plan permit for the Jadar lithium mine project was unconstitutional.
Belgrade revoked licences for the Australian miner’s $2.4 billion lithium project in western Serbia in January 2022 after massive protests by environmental groups over the proposed mine.
Between 2021 and 2022, Serbian environmentalists collected 30,000 signatures in a petition demanding that parliament enact legislation to halt lithium exploration in the country.
“The government overstepped the limits of its competence by adopting the regulation in a manner that is not in accordance with Article 3 of the Constitution and the provisions of the Law on Government and the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment,鈥 Serbia’s top court ruled.
Green activists have repeatedly warned that the mining projects will cause more pollution in Serbia, already one of Europe鈥檚 most polluted countries.
On Thursday, several hundred protesters gathered in front of the Constitutional Court building to demand a halt to the lithium exploration saying it is harmful to the environment.
If completed, the Jadar project would be Europe鈥檚 biggest lithium mine, with a production of 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year, enough to power one million electric vehicles and supply 90% of the continent鈥檚 current lithium needs.
Jadar would also propel Rio Tinto onto the world鈥檚 top 10 lithium producers podium.
“Rio Tinto welcomes the decision of the Constitutional Court in Serbia,” the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
“We continue to believe the Jadar project has the potential to be a world-class lithium-borates asset that could act as a catalyst for the development of other industries and thousands of jobs for the current and future generations in Serbia.”
Shares of Rio Tinto rose 0.5% by 12:10 p.m. EDT. The miner has a market capitalization of $110 billion.
(With files from Reuters)
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12 Comments
Djoka
RioTinto will never dig in Serbia, people will not allow distruction of Balkan!!
Dragan
Djoko gde ti zivis, kada se narod pitao u nasoj Srbiji? Taj posao je vec zavrsen. Samo nasem prepametnom vodji nije jasno da ce taj isti litijum biti 10 puta skuplji za 20-30 godina.
Lazar Paroski
Necemo dati Rio tintu ili bilo kom drugom da kopaju i unistavaju prirodu ako krenu sa kopanjem bice zrtvi
Zoran
Bribe,&corruption. President of Serbia said who will return 1bn EUR if Rio Tinto does not dig? This is the bribe they paid.
Goci
We will mining but Rios Tintos in the air.
Georg
It will never happen. We would rather die than let this happen in Serbia.
Kiki
Ko takne na ovaj na膷in Svetu Srbsku zemlju,glave 膰e njemu i njegovoj porodici,sa ramena odpasti i skotrljati u dolinu Svetog Jadra! AMIN
Teacher
If they want Civil War over it, they’ll get it!
Dule
Rio Tinto Mar拧 iz Srbije!
Ana
Stay away from Serbia, Rio Tinto! We will fight with our lives to kick you out! We don’t want your corruption and hypocrisy, you showed enough how you treat people, envirinment and heritage! Go and dig underneath your houses, leave us alone!!!
Boban
Go make a mines in Germany if they need it so much, stay away from our country!!!
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