Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto's projected lithium mining project in Serbia is a backward step in terms of the 'green transition' Europe needs to make, MEP Thomas Waitz tells BIRN in an interview.

He added that Serbia would not spoil relations with Russia and China because of that. Asked about Serbia's European path, Vui said that he knew that not everything depended on us.
"At the recent meeting of foreign ministers, it was stated that Serbia has made progress on the issue of the rule of law. It is important for us to be sincerely on the European path," he said.

Hundreds of locals from western Serbia, but also activists and opposition politicians from other parts of the country, gathered on Thursday in Loznica, western Serbia, to protest against amendments to the local urban plan to meet the needs of a lithium mining investment by the Anglo-Australian multinational corporation Rio Tinto.

The President of Serbia said that in 2014, he was forced to propose fiscal consolidation and adopt the most difficult measures. He added that they were doing something that no one liked.
"We had to reduce salaries and pensions, to pass a more flexible Labor Law, to go against the will of the people, so that today we can enjoy the fruits of such difficult reforms," Vucic said.

This situation is even more remarkable given even a cursory glance at global aluminum prices. While aluminum prices have not fully recovered from their peak just before the 2008 financial crisis, they have returned to their price point in the early 2000s - which is higher than what the metal was trading for during most of the 1980s and 1990s.

Lithium

Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday Rio Tinto's Jadar Project would be a major development boom for Serbia and its Podrinje region, which has 10 percent of the world's lithium deposits.

According to the Serbian government, they discussed "further enhancement of bilateral cooperation between the two countries."

Brnabic expressed her hope that the positive trend of cooperation between Serbia and Australia will continue in the future, adding that Serbia's interest is to intensify cooperation in the fields of energy, economy and information technologies.

They are reporting about Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's announcement made in Davos that Chinese companies could set up an electric vehicle plant in western Serbia, in the area between Prijepolje to Krupanj.

A statement from the Macedonian government quoted Zaev as saying the aforementioned in a discussion with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, with whom he met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum as well as EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

Minister of Economic Development Valdrin Luka commented on the decision of the Kosovo government to prepare procedures for the privatization of the company, said that this is a decision aimed at the recovery of this public enterprise, Kosovo24Hours is reporting.