In Serbia, the fight of citizens and farmers against lithium mines is intensifying

In Serbia there is once again a major open conflict between the government and the peasants.The object of the dispute is the project, on which the executive led by Aleksandar Vučić has put the brand, of open a huge lithium mine in the agricultural valley of Jadar, in the western part of the country.In fact, the area contains one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe, an essential mineral for the production of electric car batteries.And while the government emphasizes the fact that the mine is a great opportunity for the economic development of the country and for the multiplication of jobs, farmers, environmentalist movements and critics get in the way, stating that the operations would produce an irreparable pollution of groundwater and rivers that cross the valley, with possible contamination of agricultural land.Today, in Belgrade, a large demonstration will take place which will bring together thousands of people, who will ask for a law that bans the extraction of lithium throughout the country.

Dubravka Djedović Handanović, Serbian Minister for Mining and Energy, claims that the Jadar Valley contains around 158 million tonnes of lithium, or 17% of Europe's estimated reserves.If built, the mine should reach cover approximately 200 hectares of the valley, an area currently dedicated to agriculture.According to projections, should be ready in 2028.Exploration of lithium and boron deposits in the Jadar Valley has been carried out for twenty years by the Anglo-Australian mining multinational Rio Tinto, which conceived a project to open the mine.However, following large protests by the Serbian population in 2021 and 2022, the project was temporarily stopped.Two years ago, the Serbian government - then led by Prime Minister Ana Brnabić - had in fact formally revoked the concessions to Rio Tinto for the exploitation of lithium mines.Yet, last July 11, the Serbian Constitutional Court has canceled that provision, asserting that with that decision the executive had exceeded its powers, therefore leaving the perimeter traced by the Constitutional Charter.A ruling of this type was indeed expected, in particular given the previous signing of a letter of intent by Serbia and the European Commission in view of a strategic collaboration for lithium extraction and lithium ion battery production, in the name of the “green transition”.Environmental activists and farmers, who gathered in front of the Court on the day of the sentence, reacted by announcing strong protests, with street demonstrations and railway blockades.In support of their battle, the environmental assessment conducted two years ago by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts stands out, which defined the project as "devastating", underlining that its eventual realization would lead to a «massive devastation of the surrounding space, to permanent changes in the character of the landscape, to the degradation of the biodiversity of the land, forests, surface water and groundwater", as well as to the "displacement of local residents, the cessation of sustainable and profitable agricultural activities".

At the end of 2021, Serbian citizens were got off in the square for weeks in order to ask for the mine exploitation project to be blocked by the multinational Rio Tinto is completely blocked.Managing, with strong pressure on the government (which had previously promulgated a law on the expropriation of land), to obtain what was requested.But now everything has turned upside down.Last June, Rio Tinto published an environmental impact report with the aim of calming people down, promising a «safe, reliable and proven technology", denouncing, at the same time, "a broad disinformation campaign based on defamatory elements" in which "unsubstantiated claims" are made.Yet, farmers, academics and networks of ecological associations have not held back.And they are ready, once again, to assert their reasons.

[by Stefano Baudino]