Protests in Serbia against lithium mining to culminate in Belgrade rally

Environmental organizations and locals affected by lithium and boron exploration in Serbia scheduled a major gathering in Belgrade for July 10. It will be held after dozens of rallies throughout the country against Rio Tinto’s Jadar project and other potential investments. The authorities are denying claims exploration activities are underway in numerous places and that the environment and livelihoods are at risk.

Spearheaded by the Association of Environmental Organizations of Serbia (SEOS) and Eko straža, activists are preparing for a major protest in Belgrade against lithium and boron exploration and especially Rio Tinto’s renewed Jadar project for a mine and processing facility.

The Constitutional Court recently unblocked the investment, which the government formally stopped in early 2022. Moreover, Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Commission on a strategic partnership in sustainable raw materials, battery value chains, and electric vehicles. The document is based on the European Union’s controversial Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA).

In response, locals concerned about their livelihoods, nature and public health held protests in Loznica, where the Anglo-Australian mining giant is planning a mine and processing plant, and nearby Valjevo and Šabac. It quickly turned into a wave of rallies. Dozens of past and scheduled gatherings are slated to culminate in the center of Belgrade on July 10.

Activists again demand nationwide ban on lithium exploration, mining

The Belgrade rally would mark the expiry of SEOS’s ultimatum deadline for Serbia to ban lithium and boron exploitation and mining. Environmentalists already submitted the same request in a petition in 2022, in line the Law on the Referendum and the People’s Initiative. It obligated the National Assembly of Serbia to discuss the matter but the parliament disregarded the document.

The current protests drew a surprisingly high turnout despite the summer heat and vacation season. They are held mostly in central and western Serbia, but also in the mining region in the east. The upcoming rallies include the ones in Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac, the largest cities after the capital.

Most opposition parties expressed their support to protests, though the organizers told them not to display their insignia.

Referendum, another snap general election in play

Minister for Public Investment​​ Darko Glišić from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) doesn’t rule out the possibility of another in a string of snap general elections. The last round was held in December, followed by local elections in June.

Top officials led by President Aleksandar Vučić are also revisiting the idea of organizing a referendum on the Jadar lithium project.

Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović yesterday warned that disinformation is being spread on environmental risks and the impact of lithium mining.

Đedović Handanović: The memorandum with the EU is for highest environmental, social standards

She denied the claims of exploration activities in the Niš county and the “risk of exploitation in Topola” and some other places. “We heard that western Serbia, Požega and Šabac were mentioned. I want to assure citizens that no decisions exist on lithium exploration at these sites and that in the last 21 years only one metallic raw materials mine was opened in Serbia,” she stressed.

Citizens in Loznica and the surrounding area decided independently to sell land to the company to develop the Jadar project, the minister asserted, also denying the opposition’s allegations that the people are being forcibly evicted. “Certain environmental activists that wanted to sell their properties, too, but failed, became the biggest opponents of the project, as did some that sold their properties,” Đedović Handanović stated.

Turning to claims about the impact of using sulfuric acid, she underscored that two times more of it is used in agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry for the production of fertilizers and detergent. The memorandum with the European Union was signed to apply the highest environmental protection and social standards, the minister said.

Scientists in opposing camps

Đedović Handanović noted that the Faculty of Mining and Geology and Technical Faculty in Bor of the University of Belgrade, Mining Institute in Belgrade and national associations of mining and geology engineers published a joint statement that technological development and progress are impossible without mining and critical minerals.

The issue mustn’t be mining or no mining but what kind of mining, a group of scientific institutions and professional associations said

The same goes for the switch to renewables, environmental protection and climate change mitigation, in their view. The issue mustn’t be “mining or no mining” but “what kind of mining,” according to the said group of institutions.

Conversely, a group of Serbian scientists found in a new study, published in the Nature scientific journal, that environmental damage risk far exceeds the benefits of lithium mining in western Serbia. It is the only such project in the world that its planned in a populated and fertile agricultural area, they said. Most importantly, it will certainly destroy one of only three water-bearing areas in Serbia, the paper reads.