Wednesday, July 17, 2024

"Serbian Government Restarts Rio Tinto's Contentious Lithium Mine Project"

It is the largest known lithium deposit in Europe.

From Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), July 16:

Serbia’s government has reinstated a spatial plan for a multibillion-dollar lithium mine and processing plant, days after the Balkan state's Constitutional Court said a previous government acted improperly to halt the project amid public protests.

Anglo-Australian metals and mining giant Rio Tinto's plans for a sprawling 250-hectare complex to exploit huge mineral deposits in a fertile western valley have pitted environmental and other local opponents of the so-called Jadar project against President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling allies for years.

But a government session on July 16 adopted a decree to restart the project immediately, based on the Constitutional Court's conclusion five days earlier that the government of then-Prime Minister Ana Brnabic had acted unconstitutionally when it withdrew permits for Rio Tinto....

....MUCH MORE

Also at RFE/RL and probably related, July 17:

Previously: