Danica Popovic, a retired professor from the Belgrade University Faculty of Economics and author of an analysis on the economic and financial aspects of the Rio Tinto project in Serbia, told N1’s show Behind the News that total revenues from lithium mining in the country would be 2.6 euros per capita annually.
“Based on the economic and financial analyses, as well as the enormous risks associated with its potential implementation, the Jadar Project is not justified and should be halted,” read the conclusions by Point Group founder with mining industry experience Zoran Drakulic, Center for Liberal-Democratic studies (CLDS) founder Bosko Mijatovic, Faculty of Economic Professor and former National Bank of Serbia Govenor Dejan Soskic, and Danica Popovic.
The authors of the analysis are of the opinion that Rio Tinto’s Jadar project would have uncertain and, at best, negligible economic effects for Serbia.
Professor Popovic believes that the Serbian President currently has two tasks.
“One is Rio Tinto, to secure what the European Union (EU) and the Germans need, and that is to have lithium in Europe, and make a drastic shift away from Chinese lithium and the Chinese market. We serve as a kind of protection for them. Vucic’s second task is to hand over Kosovo,” said Popovic, adding that she thinks so much fuss is currently being made just so there is no talk about Kosovo.
Regarding financial parameters, the professor said the goal is to obscure things in a multitude of data, and that the aim of their study was to show that Serbian citizens would get 2.6 euros each annually from lithium mining.
Popovic explained that they arrived at this figure when they found on Rio Tinto’s website a study by the Ergo Institute, which she described as relatively unknown.
“We took official Rio Tinto data. The figures we operate with are also those of Rio Tinto studies. They say that they will generate a billion per year, of which 695 million would be annual revenue. So 695 billion over 40 years,” she emphasized.
When asked about the logic behind Serbia potentially “losing” from lithium mining, Professor Popovic said: “That is not our logic, it is the logic of the European Union and Germany.”
She added that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently came to Serbia to explain this logic, which has to so with Europe’s political need to oppose China.
“They don’t know what to do with China and Chinese lithium and electric cars. America has introduced a 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars. Europe about 50 percent. They are desperate, they don’t know what to do. One of the things they can do is to start their own production in the country,” said Popovic.