Green activists have set up several tents in front of Serbia鈥檚 presidential building demanding for a nationwide ban on lithium mining and exploration, as many fear that Rio Tinto鈥檚 recently revoked licence for a major project may be reinstated after April鈥檚 general elections.
The demonstration echoes rallies held in Belgrade and other major Serbian towns over the past two months, which ended up swaying the government into cancelling Rio鈥檚 exploration licences for its $2.4 billion Jadar lithium mine.
Protesters have also blasted an effort to speed up ownership changes for both state and private mining projects. The outrage forced President Aleksandar Vu膷i膰 to send the proposal back to parliament for reworking.
鈥淚f all mining projects for which the聽government聽has issued exploration licences go through, Serbia will cease to exist,鈥� Now Zlatko Kokanovic, a farmer from Gornje Nedeljice, where the mine would be built, told Reuters. 鈥淭he country will become a colony of big, foreign companies,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e do not deserve to be ecological refugees.鈥�
Related read:聽Rio Tinto says 60 Jadar mines wouldn鈥檛 fill looming lithium gap
Prices for the commodity, key for manufacturing the batteries that power electric vehicles, shot to a record last year, increasing supplies concerns.
The world鈥檚 top automakers, from Tesla to Volkswagen to Toyota, need an ever-growing supply of battery materials to accelerate the roll-out of EVs, with experts expecting demand for the battery metal coming from the sector will account for almost three quarters of its consumption by 2030, up from 41% in 2020.
The Supply Cliff by
鈥� Simon Moores (@sdmoores)
To prevent a huge shortfall of lithium in the late 2020s, more mines need to be financed now.
Experts said the world鈥檚 shortage of lithium had been forecast to last for another three years at least, but with the cancellation of the Jadar project, the shortfall would now last for several years.
鈥淲e鈥檙e at the point now where lithium supply is going to set the pace of electric vehicle rollout,鈥� Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said聽in January.
The Jadar project, which would have been one of Serbia鈥檚 biggest foreign investments, was part of official efforts to draw in investment and boost economic growth. The government鈥檚 goal is to have the mining sector generating between 4% and 5% of Serbia鈥檚 total GDP in less than 10 years, a significant increase from its current 2%.聽
At full capacity, the mine was expected to produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate a year, making it Europe鈥檚 biggest lithium mine by output.
(With files from Reuters)