Photo: Jelena Đukić Pejić/DWThe citizens of Zaječar have been afraid for years because of the investigation and expansion of the Chinese mine at the location of Malka Golaj. However, the heavy machinery suddenly disappeared
These days, the Malka Golaja site is a sand and stone desert. What remained were the beaten tracks of heavy trucks that passed there dozens of times every day, pools made for cooling pumps, some machines and some boards on Chinese language. An apocalyptic image has replaced the once beautiful nature of this area. Even now, on the edges of that desert, the outlines of the forest can be seen in the distance. This is how the place where Malka Golaja Mining has been conducting investigative activities looks like for the past ten days.
Martin Stanojević, an activist of the Timočka Rebellion that follows mining in this area he says that all the machines, all the people and all the trucks disappeared from there in a day or two. "It is not clear to me if they have finished or if they are about to start."
Fears Zajecarac from the expansion of the Chinese mine came into the public eye last summer during the local elections in that city, but the fear really became real when they organized a walk for all interested citizens to the place where the research is being done, writes DW.
"We have been filming what Malko Golai looks like since the holes were being drilled there, but people realized the seriousness of the situation only at the beginning of June this year, when about a hundred of us went to see it with their own eyes. Then they told their friends, and even then we received assurances from the city authorities that it was not true, that it was green mining and that there would be no negative impacts," says Martin Stanojević.
Last week, councilors of "Change we believe in" in the city assembly visited the site of Malka Golaja and found workers, trucks, heavy machinery, containers where workers are staying and signs that say work is in progress.
"After that, we called the police, because we knew at that moment that they only had two permits in that place and that the scope of the work on the ground exceeded them," says Uglješa Đuričković from Change in whom we believe. He states that the first permit was for arranging access roads up to 6 meters wide, and that the actual roads are up to 40 meters wide. He also cites the permission of the Ministry of Mining and Geological Research, which foresees a small area for research, and as Đuričković says, "more than 50 hectares of forest has been devastated."
The police made a report, a criminal complaint was filed, an investigative procedure was initiated in which the documentation of the city administration confirmed that Ziđin does not have permits that foresee the scope of the works carried out there, the city councilor explains.
Neither they nor the environmental activists have ever managed to "make" the city authorities to see for themselves the extent of the damage caused by the Chinese company in the vicinity of their city, and not even in June of this year, when the Republic Forestry and Hunting Inspection ordered the company "Serbia ZiJin Mining" to immediately stop work in that location due to illegal forest cutting and initiated a complaint for economic offense. The inspection found a drastic violation of the law on forests and complete deforestation on an area of more than 11 hectares.
When asked if the criminal complaint is the reason for the workers' departure from the site or something else, Uglješa Đuričković says that they can no longer tolerate media pressure. "But probably the reason is that the elections are going on, and it is said that they will not take any more actions until the elections."
Martin Stanojević from Timočka Buna says that they have informed all organizations in Serbia, but also in Romania, especially Miningwhatch. It is the organization that, as Stanojević says, managed to stop the gold mine that they fought against for more than a decade.
They have now collected the signatures of a total of 28 Romanian organizations that are asking their Ministry of the Environment to pay attention to whether Serbia, as required by the ESPOO Convention on Transboundary Impact Assessment, will invite them to consultations regarding the scope assessment.
Stephanie Roth from the Miningwhatch organization says: "We were proactive, and as soon as possible, immediately after the end of the scope assessment phase, we told the Ministry of the Environment by letter to agree to consultations when they receive an invitation from Serbia, and if they don't, to ask the Serbian ministry that we want to be invited," she tells DW.
She says that the Elaborate confirms that the new plan will potentially have a cross-border impact, and that the UN special report from 2025 already shows this. Stephanie Roth adds that they did not know about this problem until they were contacted by the Timočka Buna.
"When people unite, they cannot be defeated. By definition, a mine is theft so that others can profit, and Timok is not a sacrificial lamb for the profit of Zijin, it is much more, it is a people and an environment that share culture, language, customs and much more."
A day after the Romanian organizations, the Bulgarian organizations, 12 of them, also sent a similar letter to their ministry. Although the Danube forms a 15 km border with this country, they also request the status of a potentially affected party, since the Timok flows into the Danube above 3 of their municipalities. They require documentation in the Bulgarian language, participation in consultations, and independent expert assessments of transboundary and cumulative impacts.
From the very beginning, Snezana Šerbula, a professor from the technology department of the Department of Environmental Protection of the Technical Faculty in Bor, who teaches water technology in her department, has also been vocal. It has been pointed out for years that this kind of mining damages underground watercourses, healthy drinking water and mixes it with mining waste, tailings or the ore itself at greater depths.
Šerbula once again points out to DW that with the work done so far, Ziđina Brestovačka, Kriveljska and Borska reka have moved into the fifth category in terms of pollution and that there is no life in them. "Now it's Timok and Danube's turn because the category of pollution is growing exponentially with the greater expansion of mining and metallurgy in these areas."
Snezana Šerbula says that according to her experience with the company Ziđin, everything depends on the resistance of non-governmental organizations and citizens. "If they judge that the resistance is small, they will just remain silent for a short period, then they will start executing their plans again. And if the resistance does not decrease as well as the media support, then there is hope that they will give up."
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