Rio Tinto

As it is stated, the address will be dedicated to the current protests and the company Rio Tinto.
Vui will also speak on the occasion of the Law on Expropriation and the Law on Referendum and People's Initiative.
On that occasion, President Vucic will announce what decisions he has made regarding the laws, and in accordance with his powers.

He also said that, as he did back then, he still supports this project, because it is good for Serbia.

Asked if he had consulted with lawyers, he said "it seems to me that they will sign the Law on Expropriation".

Ambitious Plans

Serbian President Vucic, PM Ana Brnabic met the Rio Tinto delegation. June 2021. Photo: Serbia's Presidency

Serbia, or rather its western part, sits on top of some of Europe's largest lithium reserves. The metal is a key component of batteries which are crucial to the success of Europe's planned and much mooted 'green transition'.

The permits have yet to be issued and Serbian authorities have mooted the possibility of a referendum, but with so much at stake can "the voice of the people" really stop mining giant Rio Tinto's plan to dig Europe's biggest lithium mine in western Serbia?

However, the Uprising's main weakness comes from a struggle within over who gets to lead the emerging ecological front, but also which political faction would collect the 'green' votes.

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.

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.

Two Serbian NGOs, the Coalition against Environmental Corruption and the Podrinje Anti-Corruption Team, PAKT, on Tuesday said they had filed charges against Rio Sava Exploration and China Communications and Construction, CCCC, and their subcontractors, for environmental pollution.

Serbia's estimated deposits are the largest in Europe and the insatiable appetite for batteries that power everything from iPhones to Tesla cars is prompting the likes of Rio Tinto Group to study the viability of mining it.
News portal Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten writes about the lithium wealth in Serbia, carried by portal serbia-energy.eu.