The story of the potential exploitation of lithium in western Serbia (and the organised civil resistance that followed) is one of the key cases that must be understood if you want to better understand Serbian society and the complexity of the problems surrounding a potential ‘green’ transition. Activist and researcher from the Faculty of Geography at the University of Belgrade, Predrag Momčilović, explains why ‘Rio Tinto go away!’ is written on our walls and commonly exclaimed at protests.
Lithium – a matter of (dis)trust
When lithium is discussed, it is usually stated that it’s the lightest metal in the periodic table, or the phrase ‘lithium is the new oil of the 21st century’ is used, due to the growing demand for the metal from the ‘green’ industry. Just as it happened with oil, lithium is now being described as a curse for (semi)peripheral countries such as Serbia. Especially if said countries are, like Serbia, ‘leading’ in levels of distrust by various criteria. Most citizens distrust the government, both governmental and non-governmental organisations, political parties, the media, schools, the police, and mutual distrust is on the rise as well.
When we stop trusting the educational system and lose faith in the scientific method, the conspiracy theorist and the academic seem the same. This lack of trust also leaves us unable to meaningfully differentiate between multinational companies, local activists, and farmers. Building distrust is a good way to snuff out any resistance; anyone raising the alarm can simply be dismissed as a foreign agent, a traitor serving some unknown private interests. But when you build a society on distrust, it can also easily backfire, turning planned ‘large-scale investments’, such as lithium exploitation, into triggers for mass protests and widespread public resistance.
Jadarite or kryptonite?
To understand the full story, let’s go back to the beginning of the 21st century and the discovery of lithium in the Jadar river valley in western Serbia. At the time, it was more common to hear a comparison being drawn between the newly discovered mineral, jadarite, and kryptonite, a mineral from the Superman comic book series, than it was to hear about the potential uses of lithium. In the beginning, this mineral was of interest to research companies primarily because of its considerable contents of boron ore, which has many uses (in different fields, from medicine to agriculture), whereas lithium was secondary. It was only with the growing demand for minerals needed for the ‘green’ transition that interest in jadarite also increased. Globally speaking, 87% of lithium is used in battery manufacturing, a sector that is becoming increasingly important with the electrification of agriculture.It’s precisely that demand for lithium, and the introduction of this mineral as key to a green transition and decarbonisation which sowed doubt and confusion among many foreign climate activists who don’t know much about the local context. Without context, it’s easy to fall into the trap of accusing the local population of hindering progress and being conservative. In reality, the main question is whether a huge multinational company has the right to destroy people’s lives for the sake of someone’s so-called green transition?
Local activists knew, at the very start of the process, that a large multinational mining company had been researching lithium reserves around Loznica, but they knew little about the company itself and the technology of lithium extraction. When information about the company’s work started surfacing, each discovery proved bleaker than the last. Rio Tinto’s mining operations had caused ecological and social catastrophes in different parts of the world, everywhere from Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Mongolia, to Australia and even the United States of America.
Seeing as the planned exploitation hasn’t yet begun in Serbia, there is a lack of empirical research on the level of pollution, but multiple scientific studies warn about the danger and scale of potential pollution. The Faculty of Biology warns about the potential loss of biodiversity, hydrologists and hydrogeologists warn that the exploitation and the tailings disposal site are very likely to cause the pollution of both groundwater and surface water, while the occasional flooding of the Jadar River may pose an additional risk of the pollution spreading to all environmental media. Opening the mine would lead to the destruction and repurposing of both forest and arable land, starting with an area of 533 hectares, which is around 700 football fields, and with the potential for further expansion.
It was clear to local activists that the situation was more than serious and that the exploitation of lithium might soon start, and it also became clear to residents in 2020, when Rio Tinto started purchasing land in the zone of the potential mine. For the sake of lithium and boron, there were discussions about amending spatial plans, and the existing and newly planned infrastructure was already being adapted to the planned mine. Simultaneously, fake news was spreading, claiming Serbia held 10 per cent of the world’s lithium reserves, and that in the future, thanks to this fact, it would rival the United Arab Emirates or Qatar, with Loznica, a small town in western Serbia, becoming the ‘new Dubai’. In reality, according to various geological studies, only a little over one per cent of the world’s known lithium reserves can be found in Serbia’s territory. Even in Europe, countries like Czechia or Germany have larger reserves.
The matter of lithium isn’t just a matter of reserves, but of the form it’s found in. The technology differs significantly between the methods used to extract lithium from water in Germany, those used to extract it from brine in Bolivia and Chile, and those intended for extracting it from hard rock in Serbia. This might be a good time for a brief chemistry refresher: jadarite from western Serbia is, chemically speaking, sodium-lithium borosilicate hydroxide – a complicated name which indicates that this mineral has multiple components. To extract a particular one, you have to use a decomposition agent, and in Serbia’s case, the intended agent is sulfuric acid.
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Author: Predrag Momčilović
Photo: Saša Dragojlo, Wikimedia Commons/Marcin Wichary
