Serbian PM: No one will get mining exploration rights; Activists: Total ban

NEWS 24.01.202212:52
TANJUG/STRAHINJA ACIMOVIC

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic on Monday denied claims that rights to explore for lithium and borate would be awarded to another company after her government revoked the permits issued to Rio Tinto, but the environmentalists demanded a permanent ban.

She told reporters in Belgrade “that an end was absolutely put” on Rio Tinto’s exploration of lithium and borite deposits in Serbia, adding that the government “does not intend” to give any other company the research rights.

Environmental activists have warned that the Serbian authorities could be planning to award exploration and exploitation rights to other companies after the government revoked all permits issued to Rio Tinto along with the spatial plan that allowed the opening of a lithium mine in western Serbia.

The president of the association ‘Ne damo Jadar’ (We Don’t Give Jadar) from Gornji Nedeljice, the northern village in the centre of Rio Tinto’s planned lithium mine, Zlatko Kokanovic, said later on Monday that the movement had asked Brnabic that the Government pass a law on a permanent ban on the exploration and exploitation of lithium and boron in Serbia.

„Brnabic said that the law could not be passed due to the elections, but the request was not explicitly rejected, „said Kokanovic.

The presidential, early general, Belgrade and some local elections are due in Serbia on April 3.

“At this moment I don’t see how some other company could come in when there are no other exploration rights and no one has applied for rights nor do we have any intention of giving someone else exploration rights,” Brnabic said.