Photo: Natalie Bertrams (archive)The mining giant Rio Tinto denies the claims of activists that it is planning to evict a hundred thousand people from the Jadra valley. The company says it is ready to release a draft of a study on the environmental impact of lithium mines - a draft that "Vreme" revealed two years ago. It enumerates numerous risks, but none of the apocalyptic ones that opponents of the mine talk about
The company Rio Tinto announced that it is "absolutely incorrect information" that more than one hundred thousand people will be displaced due to the Jadar project.
This information was cited by some of the opponents of lithium mining during the weekend, without specifying where this information came from.
Thus, the "Move-Change" movement stated on the X network on Sunday that President Aleksandar Vučić "doesn't mind the 100.000 people in Jadar who need to be displaced because of Rio Tinto."
The president has a problem with the figure of 100.000 people. 🤷🏻♀️
He does not mind when 100.000 people leave Serbia every year. 🫣
He doesn't mind when, thanks to him and Kurta, 100.000 Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija are displaced. 🫣
He doesn't mind the 100.000 people in Jadr who need to be displaced because of Rio... pic.twitter.com/hzFQfwLLg2
— Kreni-Promeni (@KPromeni) January 21, 2024
The leader of that movement, Savo Manojlović, previously said in a guest appearance on Nova S television that this is how he understood President Vučić's earlier mention that 110.000 people live in the region.
Vučić, presenting his "Marshall Plan" on Saturday, in a live broadcast on over forty televisions, mentioned that figure, estimating that so many people live on the stretch from Loznica to Bajina Bašta.
He stated that these people have less work today, and that it would be different if 2.000 of them were employed with a minimum salary of one thousand euros, referring to lithium production chain.
51 households already sold
Rio Tinto reiterates that the Jadar project affects 52 households, all but one of which are "voluntarily" sold to Rio Tinto and already relocated.
Rio Tinto's ownership of a large part of the estate in Gornji Nedeljice in the west of Serbia was also touched upon by the outgoing Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, who said that the land cannot be taken away from the company, because that would mean "nationalization" and legal uncertainty for everyone.
Further in the statement, Rio Tinto stated that, in order to show "readiness for an open discussion", it is ready to "publicly release the draft Environmental Impact Assessment Study in its current form".
However, to an internal company document that quotes exhaustively from the draft study the weekly "Vreme" came two years ago, when the Jadar project was officially stopped.
In that draft, numerous risks to the environment were mentioned, but there was no mention of the mass displacement of the population or of the poisoning scenarios of the Jadra, Drina and Sava rivers, which some activists and experts warn about.
A maximum of 526 miners
As we wrote at the time, the complete study would have about six hundred pages and additional tables and graphics and would go down to banal details. Let's say that the wheels of construction machines should be washed in order to raise less dust and that free condoms should be provided in workers' accommodation.
During six decades, 9,5 million tons of material would be excavated from which lithium carbonate, boric acid and sodium sulfate would be obtained. Three years after commissioning, the mine and adjacent processing facility would reach maximum capacity.
The document states that the workers would work in three eight-hour shifts, of which an hour would be a break, and half an hour would be entering and exiting the shaft. This continues, because the shaft with a diameter of 8,5 meters goes to a depth of 433,45 meters from where the ore is extracted.
The maximum number of workers in the mine itself would be 526. "90 percent of the workforce is expected to be from Serbia, so many of them are expected to live in the area," the excerpts from the study state.
The Drina alluvium is cited as the best solution for obtaining water, while the waste water, after processing, would be discharged into the Jadar. "The planned runoff collection system will be needed for many years after closure, and possibly forever," the paper says.
They claim that the wells were already polluted
As part of the study, Rio Tinto is obliged to state the found "zero state" of the environment before the start of work.
In the document that we came across at the time, Rio Tinto states that the groundwater in the alluvium of the Korenita and Jadar rivers "is characterized by poorer quality" in the region where the ore is found. Allegedly, in February 2021, they determined that the water from 38 out of 40 wells was microbiologically defective, and that the boron content of one milligram per liter was exceeded in five wells.
The draft of the Study stated: "The consequences of carrying out works on the surface of the terrain may be the deterioration of the existing quality of groundwater and changes in the level regime and directions of movement of groundwater first issued considering that they generally follow the morphology of the terrain."
"Through an internal company-wide risk assessment, the greatest risk to human health and the environment was identified for the process water lagoon," the document states. In the event of poor construction, an earthquake, or an extreme climate event, water could spill out of the lagoons:
"The impact on the environment has not been modeled in detail, but it is estimated that this would lead to endangerment of the environment beyond the boundaries of the complex," it says in the excerpts.
The study would have to be made public
The internal document enumerates "potential right situations" that can have major consequences for the "working and living environment". Let's say, when placing close to fifty tons of explosives in a pit storage (which is the maximum amount according to the law).
As there are dozens of species of protected animals and plants in the Jadar valley, Rio Tinto states a number of measures. Let's say that you have to plant alder, field ash, licorice and cherry if those forests are cut down for the needs of the mine.
Or that the land for construction must not be prepared between March and mid-July because that's when the birds are nesting. Or that the workers have to move the nests they come across.
Experts on the subject told us that it is no wonder that the company practically completed that study in advance. First, they have been around for fifteen years and have been collecting various data. Second, some general sites are copied from studies done for other mines.
Unlike the document that we have come to, the final study would also have a number of technical details that Rio Tinto is now keeping as a "trade secret".
If the Jadar project were to be reactivated, the study would have to pass public inspection, criticism and comments, and the technical commission of the Ministry of the Environment. And that procedure could drag on for months - if Rio Tinto ever gets the green light to submit a study.
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