Will jadarite be our kryptonite

Mining in Serbia is experiencing a new expansion and it is enough to look at the map where all the exploration works are being carried out to understand that we are expecting the opening of new mines. One of the many is a deposit of the unique mineral jadarite, which is rich in lithium. Namely, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted in mid-March a plan for the implementation of lithium and boron ore research and processing projects, which foresees that the British-Australian "Rio Tinto" will open a mine in the Jadra valley near Loznica.

The total value of the investment, as the Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic claimed at the time, will be around one and a half billion US dollars, and Rio Tinto has already invested 200 million dollars in Serbia. The news went unnoticed because just a few days later, a state of emergency was introduced in Serbia, and citizens were preoccupied with where to buy yeast and masks. Despite the fact that "Rio Tinto" has been searching for lithium in Serbia for a decade and a half, the company attracted the attention of the general public only in the middle of the year, when the world media announced how the company destroyed the cultural heritage of the Aboriginal people in Australia, which is 46.000 years old.

"The destruction occurred during Australia's 'Reconciliation Week', which aims to correct past wrongs and injustices inflicted on Aboriginal people. The act itself, especially on such a significant date, is simply terrible," Karen Adams from the Human Rights Law Center in Australia told Vreme.

The destruction of sacred heritage for the aborigines, who claim that "Rio Tinto" deceived them, did not prevent representatives of the authorities in Serbia from praising their cooperation with the mining giant, promising the local population, now traditionally, a better life and new investments. Article 7 of the Law on Mining was never mentioned, and according to it, the holder of research and exploitation "cannot be a company that has unfulfilled obligations regarding rehabilitation and protection of the environment and cultural assets and assets that enjoy prior protection".

The citizens of the Loznica region, who protested last week against the construction of the mine, rightly wondered how the company will treat the local population and nature if this kind of devastation for the sake of profit occurs in Australia, where the company originated.

CONFIDENTIALITY FIRST

Despite the fact that the main exploration works are practically completed, and the lithium mine, according to announcements, should start operating as early as 2024/5, the public is not yet familiar with what mining and ore processing technology "Rio Tinto" will use when exploiting lithium and boron. During the inspection of the spatial plan by the activists, precisely those data were not entered and this is one of the reasons why the representatives of non-governmental organizations, such as the Podrinje Anti-Corruption Team (PAKT) and CEKOR, refused to accept it as valid.

"It is not clear how it is possible to calculate the impact on the environment if one does not know which chemicals will be worked with." When we asked for that information, the company said that it was confidential information and a business secret," Zvezdan Kalmar from the Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development (CEKOR) told Vreme.

In the hope of getting some answers, the journalist turned to the Faculty of Mining and Geology in Belgrade, whose experts would be invited in the event of a super-expertise regarding a possible accident in the mine. Although the question was not related to the company "Rio Tinto", but exclusively to the techniques and technologies of lithium mining, Professor Dr. Rade Tokalić answered that "most employees at the faculty have a confidentiality agreement or a non-disclosure agreement with the company 'Rio Tinto'", because which they are unable to discuss. According to data from the Podrinj Anti-Corruption Team (PAKT), in addition to RGF experts being hired by the company, the faculty also received a donation from "Rio Tinto" in the amount of 947.506 dinars.

When this information was presented in a telephone conversation to Jelena Aleksić, the external affairs manager of "Rio Save" (a subsidiary of "Rio Tinta"), she replied that despite the fact that RGF employees cooperate with the Rio Tinto company, she expects that in the event of an accident, they would performed an "objective and professional" expert examination.

She added that the studies, including the one on the environmental impact, are still under construction.

"During the phase in which the studies are carried out, an international team of experts from various fields, from mining, technological processing and cooperation with the local community, continues to work to assess the viability of the project," Aleksićeva states in a written response.

WATER FROM THE DRINA, WATER IN DRINA

Lithium is a strategic raw material used to make batteries for mobile phones, laptops and even cars. Serbia is one of the few countries that owns it, but which has not even started mining, which makes the country possess some of the largest reserves in the world. According to experts, the EU will not be able to compete with China in development without lithium. The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has already announced that lithium will be sold to China, more precisely to one of their factories that is supposed to be opened in Serbia.

Apart from the question of the chemicals that will be used in the processing of the ore, the production of lithium also requires a lot of water. Depending on the process, the amount varies, so for the production of a kilogram of lithium, 1000 to 1900 liters are needed. As jadarite reserves are estimated at around 118 million tons, from which around two million tons of ore can be obtained, it is clear that the amount of water necessary for production is enormous.

"In the spatial plan, a new option appears for the first time, and that is that a large amount of water will be obtained from the banks of the Drina and dragged through a pipeline over 20 km to Brezjak, where ore processing is planned," PAKT president Miroslav Mijatović told Vreme. .

Mijatović also claims that by using the water from the Drina river alone, the project will have a cross-border impact, which requires additional research. In PAKT, they claim that "Rio Tinto", or rather their daughter company "Rio Sava", has already built 30 measuring stations on local rivers, and that the company has a license for only one.

"We asked JVP 'Srbija Voda' to provide us with all permits issued for 'Rio Sava Exploration'. As far as we know, they only have one, and that is for the construction of a measuring station on the Korenica River. "When we asked the company if they built the other facilities without a permit, they answered verbally that they had construction permits from the Ministry of Mining," claims Mijatović.

He noted that it is not clear on what basis the Ministry of Mining grants permits for the construction of water facilities. The Ministry of Mining and Energy did not respond to journalists' questions.

The company "Rio Sava" did not directly answer the question of whether they will use water from the Drina river, who issued the permits for the already built water facilities, as well as how they will deal with tailings and waste water.

"We do everything to ensure that we carry out our activities in compliance with the highest standards in the areas of occupational health and safety and environmental protection. All the results of the work are contained in the annual reports, which we submit to the ministry in charge of mining and geological research and other competent institutions," answered Jelena Aleksić.

Professor of the Faculty of Mining in Tuzla, PhD. Senaid Salihović tells "Vreme" that, given the concentration of lithium, excavations and works in the field will have to be extensive in order for the production of this raw material to be economically profitable.

"We will have to find a way to safely exploit lithium, especially water needs to be protected." However, it is not us geologists or miners who decide, but economists," says Salihović.

He said that it should be taken into account that the tailings for disposal of mining residues will be extremely large, and that this part will be a special challenge for the experts on the project. Namely, tailings will have to be specially secured so that there is no "leaking" of material into nature, and lithium is extremely reactive, and the terrain is additionally subject to flooding.

As the Drina flows into the Danube, the publication of Serbia's contract with "Rio Tinto" becomes even more important because the public must know who would be obliged to pay compensation and clean up the basin in the event of an accident and leakage from the tailings pond in the Drina.

photo: Khayman

THE PAST UNCOVERED

Increasing demands to stop using fossil fuels led Rio Tinto to sell its last coal mine in 2018. The company's new image was partially tarnished by the destruction of sacred Aboriginal sites, but in the not-so-distant past the company made problematic choices. The ore the company mined in Franco's Spain ended up in what was then Germany and Italy and was used to make weapons. Uranium was mined in Namibia during the occupation by the apartheid South African Republic.

Vremen's interlocutors from the Human Rights Law Center say that the company somehow managed to cover its dark past with examples of good practice in Australia itself.

"That's what shocked people the most, that they could 'get away' with what happened in Australia itself." Namely, they have been carrying out such a practice for years, but outside the country, like the one in Bungeville," Adams claims.

She adds that many mining companies, including Rio Tinto, work and behave depending on how cooperative the governments of the countries where they operate and how strict the laws are. It should be borne in mind that, according to Transparency International's global corruption index, Papua New Guinea is in 137th place and on the verge of becoming a kleptocracy. Serbia is in 91st place.

"What worries us as an organization is that we have observed that this is the usual behavior of the company." This means that 'Rio Tinto', instead of solving the problems it created with its activities, simply leaves, leaving the local community to struggle with the problems the company created," says Adams, adding that in Bougainville alone, the company "left behind" about a billion tons of tailings. .

According to international law, mining companies are required to rehabilitate the terrain after they finish mining.

According to a report by HRL Australia, Rio Tinto failed to remediate the tailings pond and the mine, which was closed in 1990, and the leak poisoned the Jaba and Kaverong rivers. The British-Australian mining giant withdrew from ownership of the Panguna mine in 2017, gifting its shares to the governments of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, ending their obligation to clean up the site after mining activities.

"They did that in Bougainville, but also in another area of ​​Papua New Guinea, then in Namibia, in Alaska... There are many controversies related to their projects in Mongolia, many accusations that they are involved in corruption, that they have affected the water supply in parts of the world that they already have problems with the water supply," concludes Adams.

Zvezdan Kalmar from the Center for Ecology and Sustainable Development (CEKOR) claims that the Law on Mining of the Republic of Serbia is extremely favorable for mining companies that allow extremely "free" behavior.

"If you add up all the damage that the companies do and how much they pay based on the mining rent, it turns out that the state is still paying to fix what the companies do when mining," Kalmar said.

The wealth of lithium is indeed a strategic advantage for an impoverished country like Serbia. In ideal conditions, this would be the basis for raising the standards of citizens, but also of the economy, which President Vučić tirelessly talks about. Unfortunately, all prerequisites such as corruption, non-transparency of government and companies, and legal regulations are closer to those in Papua New Guinea than Norway, where there is also massive mining. That is why the fear remains that Serbia and its citizens will only be left with tailings from the mineral wealth.