Jadar

They spoke on Wednesday in Belgrade, discussing implementation of the Jadar Project near Loznica, western Serbia, Tanjug said.

The plant will be manufacturing aluminum car parts.

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.

The Serbian president asked them to continue and accelerate the works, noting the project was hugely important for Serbia, Tanjug is reporting.

According to estimates, a large number of people could be working in western Serbia from 2024, when jadarite mining is expected to begin there, Vucic told reporters after the meeting.

They discussed the project Jadar, which entails the research and development of lithium deposits in the vicinity of Loznica, in western Serbia.

The delegation of this company included Executive Director of Rio Tinto Energy and Minerals Production Group Bold Baatar and Executive Director for Development and Innovation Stephen McIntosh, the Serbian government announced.

Besides the team from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON) of the University of Belgrade, students from 20 prestigious universities and business schools from all over the world are taking part.

Brnabic spoke with Executive Director of Rio Tinto Energy and Minerals Production Group Bold Baatar and Head of Rio Tinto Ventures Andrew Latham, who are in charge of the development of the lithium-borate project Jadar near Loznica in Western Serbia.

The investment will be made in cooperation with the Australian company Raiden Resources, which owns licenses for exploration near this eastern Serbia town, writes the website SEEbiz.

With the investment, Rio Tinto will hold 75 percent ownership of these exploration rights.