Serbia may soon decide to annul all contracts related to mining group Rio Tinto‘s US$2.4 billion lithium project in the country, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Saturday, as green groups blocked roads across Serbia protesting against the plan. Rio Tinto wants to develop the mine near Loznica in the western Jadar valley, but the local municipality has already scrapped a plan to allocate land for it. But environmentalists have staged protests and blocked roads to press authorities to end the project, which they say would cause irreparable damage to the area. Vucic has repeatedly said that opening the mine would depend on the outcome of an environmental study and a referendum. The protesters who blocked roads including in the capital Belgrade want the government to ban the extraction of lithium not only by Rio Tinto but any other company.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 09, 2022 10:58 UTC