The Serbian government has decided to can-cel Rio Tinto’s exploration licences for the Jadar lithium-borate pro-ject in response to demands formulated by environmentalist groups.
The Serbia-based project, valued at some US$2.4 billion, was de-signed to enable Rio Tinto to join the world’s largest lithium produc-ers.
"All decisions (linked to the lithium project) and all licences have been annulled," Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said, as reported by Reuters, following a government session at which the decision was made. "As far as project Jadar is concerned, this is an end."
On 18 January, the British-Australian group issued a statement in which it said that, at the Jadar project, "as a result of delays in the approval of the Exploitation Field Licence (EFL), which is a prerequi-site to publish the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and com-mence the consultation process, we are revising development time-lines."