Photo: Marija JankovićThe international company Rio Tinto currently no longer has any rights to explore boron and lithium in western Serbia. While Prime Minister Ana Brnabić claims that no one has asked or received a similar permit from the Government of Serbia, the "Vreme" portal has established that the relevant ministry has already granted a permit for lithium exploration at another location in the Jadra Valley to the Serbian company Asena Investment, which it purchased. the Australian company Volt Resources.
The Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, stated on Monday after a meeting with environmental activists that Rio Tinto no longer has any rights to explore lithium and boron in western Serbia, and that no other company has requested such rights. According to her, the Government of Serbia does not intend to grant exploration rights to any company, noting that the Spatial Plan for Special Purpose Areas in the Jadra Valley has been abolished.
However, such permits already exist, and Rio Tinto is not the only Australian company that has been interested in the area around Jadro.
On April 14 of last year, just 12 days after the request was submitted, the Ministry of Mining and Energy gave approval for conducting applied geological research of lithium and boron, precisely at the Jadar Sever site. According to the permit, 291 square kilometers will be available to Asena Investment doo for mineral exploration, right next to the sites where the Rio Tinta mine was planned.
The owner of Asena Investment is American Rohan Patnaik. As the Radio Free Europe portal previously wrote, he became a citizen of Serbia, it turns out, just a few months before he will receive approval for boron and lithium research in February 2021.
According to RFE/RL's data from last May in the Agency for Business Registers, Patnaik is listed as the owner of two companies in Serbia - "Asena Investment" (founded in June 2020) and "Edelweiss Mineral Exploration" (founded in March last year). Both are registered in Belgrade as companies engaged in the exploitation of minerals, production of mineral fertilizers and chemicals.
RSE wrote that Patnaik also founded the company "Dinaric Metals" in Bijeljina. The company's activity is, as stated, engineering and related technical consulting.
It can be found in the foreign media that he is also the managing director of a company from Singapore that signed a memorandum with the government of Liberia to transship iron ore from neighboring Guinea.
In November of last year, the Australian company Volt Resources published a statement stating that at the end of December it is planning a purchase and acquisition with the Serbian company Asena Investment, as part of its broader strategy of positioning itself as a multinational company engaged in the production of minerals for batteries. The announcement states that Asena is also assigning the mentioned lithium and boron exploration licenses to Volta.
On that occasion, the president of this corporation, Asimwe Kabunga, stated that it was "an exciting opportunity for the company to purchase lithium licenses for very promising and underexplored areas in Serbia."
According to documentation from the APR, on December 30, 2021, Asena Investments submitted to the Agency for Business Registers a request to change data on members and shares in the company in favor of the Australian company Volt Resources. Due to incomplete documentation, the Agency for Economic Registers rejected this request. The decision states that the applicant of the registration application will be able to pay half of the amount of the prescribed registration fee if he submits a proper registration application within 30 days.
The Association "Protect Jadar and Radjevina" is demanding a permanent ban on the exploitation of lithium and boron, and the Start-Start initiative is demanding a moratorium on lithium mining for 20 years.
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