The lithium mine within the Jadar project would not pose a significant danger to the environment, agreed the professors of the Faculty of Mining and Geology, Cedomir Beljic and Nikola Lilic, who worked on the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, with a clear note that this project, in addition to the part related to mining activities, also includes technological processing, the effects of which they did not talk about, since it does not fall within their scope of work.

These experts, who have many years of experience with studies, are convinced that with the application of the highest standards for environmental protection, impacts can be safely managed.

There is a good basis to carry out a project that, from the point of view of ecology and environmental protection, can be correct, successful and incident-free. But, to   honest, mining affects the environment, to a greater or lesser extent, say the professors, who in a  show Half an Hour of Demostat talked about the possible impact of  the mine on water, air, soil, agriculture, biodiversity…

When asked whether the Jadar mine would be more dangerous for the environment, due to waste, than other mines in Serbia, they answered that each deposit is a unique, non-renewable resource and speaks for itself. The same answer is provided to the question of whether there are comparisons that we often hear in the Serbian public - "if lithium can be mined in Germany, it can be mined in Serbia”.

Impact assessment studies, especially in complex projects such as Jadar, are done by teams of experts who have the necessary competencies and professional responsibility; after the publication of the study, a public debate is envisaged, after which the technical commission of the responsible Ministry gives a proposal to the Government whether to accept it or not. The professors point out that the entire procedure is defined by the law and that the public is not excluded, but they remind that the work on the impact assessment study was suspended when the project was stopped and that the public remained deprived of data from it.

The responsible Ministry and the Government of Serbia were expected to organize a public debate and include all professional and meritorious institutions in the country in the field of mining, engineering, natural sciences, in order to draw conclusions based on competent debate, from which citizens would not be excluded.

The professors state that a certain dose of skepticism and mistrust in the public must exist, but that is why the Ministry should have organized an expert discussion, so as not to create a cheering atmosphere, according to the rule “who yells louder”.

In the early 2022 in the wake of mass protests, the Serbian government announced that it had put an end to the Jadar project.

This point in 224 seems to be turning into a comma, and, as it is announced, the new Government of Serbia will decide on a project that involves Rio Tinto exploiting lithium in Western Serbia.

This caused a new uproar in the public, and Rio Tinto has announced that it is ready to publicly publish a draft Environmental Impact Assessment Study.

About what the Study represents, how to be sure about the integrity and credibility of the process and the autonomy of decision-making and how much the mine would affect the environment in the show Half an Hour of Demostat spoke professors of the Faculty of Mining and Geology, Nikola Lilic and Cedomir Beljic.

At the very beginning, they pointed out that the Jadar project is very complicated, that it consists of two parts, mining activities and production-industrial activities, and that they will talk only about mining and the eventual environmental consequences that the mine can leave, while technological processing, they say, should be spoken about by experts in this field.

When it comes to the impact of the mine on the waters, Professor Lilic says that the mine technology is designed in such a way that there is no disturbance of aquifers, i.e. rock formations above the deposit.

"When it comes to the mine, the technology of exploitation, the method of remediation, i.e. management of the massif, which is one of the basic processes in mining, is chosen in such a way as to ensure the safety of the execution of works itself and the efficiency and protection of the environment. The technology of excavation with irrigation was chosen, so as not to disturb the aquifer or rock formations above the bed itself. The deposit is at a depth between 400 and 600 meters, this lower jadarite zone that is the focus of exploration, so that there is no disturbance of the rock formations above for several reasons. Both because of certain tools that are located above and because of aquifers, so-called released groundwater, that are located above the deposit”, says Lilic.

He points out that the mine and technology are designed so that groundwater inflows meet the service needs for the operation of the mine.

He adds that water management always requires a certain security in the supply and that for the needs and for the process part, it is envisaged that a certain amount of water is taken from the alluvium of the Drina, i.e. the shallowest aquifers from the devastated part.

When asked about the possibility of pollution of groundwater, as well as rivers in that region, Professor Cedomir Beljic says that there is no mining that does not affect the environment and that the mine will affect the summary of groundwater to some extent, but that the fact that such a method of excavation and monitoring was chosen in order to prevent all possible risks of accidents.

He reminds that certain underground operations do not even need environmental impact assessments because such processes cannot greatly affect it.

“The very fact that parts of this underground process do not necessarily have to be treated in this way suggests that these are not as dangerous to the environment as some other forms of exploitation,” he said.

Professor Beljic reminds that the project of possible exploitation of lithium has been working since 2004, and that until a few years ago, this project was a development opportunity, but that it has changed in recent years.

“There is a good basis to carry out a project that can, from the point of view of ecology and environmental protection, be correct and successful and avoid incidents. But, to be honest, mining affects the environment, there is no story that it does not affect it, to a greater or lesser extent,” said Professor Beljic.

Professor Lilic says that there is a series aquifers at the location where the deposit is located and that hydrogeological research has been conducted over a number of years, reminding that one of the basic parts of the impact assessment process is the assessment of the quality of the environment before the project is implemented.

In this regard, he says that, after a series of campaigns and tests of groundwater, it was concluded that the good quality of groundwater is only in the shallowest aquifers, and that, as one goes closer to the tools, the quality of groundwater is getting worse.

When asked whether the locals will be able to drink water from their wells even if the mine opens, professor Lilic answers: technology has provided all the measures of protection so that pollution does not occur.

"I mentioned exploitation at 400 to 600 meters deep. Of course, those groundwater in this zone contains lithium and boron and all sorts of things, and in order for you to dig up, you have to apply drainage and pump that water to the surface. Pools, lagoons, water collectors are provided, which are completely insulated with foils and clay layers and with these waters and the waters from the process plants are managed and a treatment plant for these waters is provided. It is the legal obligation of designers to ensure safety in process management”, he states.

When asked whether some of the water from the mine will be returned to the rivers, Beljic reiterates that, when it comes to the mine, it is a closed system and that the water from the mine, rainwater and released, meet the needs, and that, according to his assessment, there are no great fears of pollution.

When it comes to air, Lilic says that modeling and assessments have been carried out, models for total suspended particles, as well as for PM 10 particles, that measures and monitoring are planned in order to proactively react and correct any pollution and excesses.

Asked what the impact of the mine on land and agriculture would be, Professor Beljic says that mining activities are planned to be carried out to the greatest extent below the surface of the earth and that immediate soil pollution would not be the case.

He says preliminary estimates have shown that subsidence due to mining operations would be half a meter, or 50 centimeters, over a 60-year period.

“We can conclude that this would not have great importance and impact on agriculture in this area. This is the method of excavation envisaged. There would be no pollution from the mine itself,” says Professor Beljic, but he underlines the difference between mining and technological processing, which, as he says, should be discussed by the relevant experts.

When it comes to the protection of biodiversity, Professor Beljic says that there is a practice to take care of the plant and animal life when opening new mines, and that certain companies operating in the environment have really treated this issue extremely correctly and responsibly, resettled protected and endangered species and took care to meet the requirements that are quite justifiably placed before companies.

"We are mining engineers and people who are engaged in this business, but our children live in this country as well, and we are not in the mood for any poisoning, environmental disturbance to an extent that is intolerable, not only on this project, but on any other. On the other hand, if you look at the issue of the development of the country, economic issues, these are very delicate things and they need to be discussed, whether it makes sense to work and engage in mining or not. I think we should. We must adopt that we must not irresponsibly treat the environment and that we must be as proactive, engaged, respect what is prescribed by law and that the control by the competent authorities is at that level not to allow any incident to happen,” said Beljic.

Professor Lilic says that the ecological status of the Jadar River is currently weak in the upper and lower parts of the river, while it is moderate in the location below, i.e. downstream from the deposit itself, but that this does not mean that it should be allowed to get worse.

He says that is why there are bodies that should monitor the implementation of the project, and the local self-government, which also has its own instruments.

“After all, the concept of sustainable mining that has been established in the world for the last 25 years implies active communication primarily with the local population, all investors or project holders, insisting on the source of sustainable technologies, sustainable exploitation of resources that is available and in active cooperation with various partners. Thus, in the implementation of any mining project, the local community is the main partner, on the other hand the state, on the third side the academic community and institutions of the system,” said Lilic.

Asked about the waste disposal and tailings pond, Professor Beljic states that the mining product itself is very easy to control and manipulate.

“Mining ends with grinding and that is the end of the story of mining. The process industry is going after, but until that moment, nothing is so dangerous or complicated to monitor and control and manipulate it in an appropriate way”, said Beljic.

Lilic explains that the waste from the mine is barren rock material during the construction of the premises and that it is planned to be disposed of in a landfill that is within the access zone of the mine.

As he states, it is about 20 hectares where it is planned to deposit between nine and ten million tons of barren rock material and poorly mineralized tailings or ore, which would be further mixed in the processing process.

“Of course, this landfill is specially prepared, there are so-called instructions and it is designed in accordance with the best possible techniques and experiences. The bottom of the landfill is isolated, all water is drained from the atmosphere and from the procedural water into the water management system on the entire project,” said Beljic.

Asked whether the Jadar mine, due to waste, would be more dangerous than other mines in Serbia, Beljic said that each mine is a story for itself and that each deposit is a unique and non-renewable resource.

“Of course, there are always possibilities for an incident, we cannot say no, but with correct work, with a good project, and believe that it is really being implemented at the highest possible level with supervision, I think that this does not pose such a great danger”, says Professor Beljic.

When asked if comparisons “if lithium can be mined in Germany, it can be mined in Serbia” are correct, and what is the difference between mining lithium in Serbia and elsewhere, Beljic says that there are several ways to obtain a useful component from the Earths crust - by underground methods, surface, borehole, as well as from the solutions.

He says that there are several projects and research fields of lithium in Europe, that lithium has been placed on the list of critical materials in the EU and that, therefore, this raw material is treated in a special way.

In Germany, lithium would be obtained from solution, but the Wolfsberg Mine in Austria, which, as Beljic says, even received approval for exploitation, is also underground, as in Jadar.

He says that the Barozo Mine in Portugal is interesting because of the comparison with Serbia due to the problems that arise and corruption affairs in that country, but points out that the situations cannot be compared either, since Barozo was supposed to be a surface exploitation, and that people there did not sell land, unlike in Jadar.

“One cannot put a sign of equality, not only in terms of the quality of the raw material being excavated, but also the situation itself, because each mine is a story for itself… The way of origin, morphology, way of appearance, excavation, is always specific to each locality,” said Professor Beljic.

Impact assessment study

Rio Sava has said that it was  ready to publish a draft Environmental Impact Assessment Study.

The professors of the Faculty of Mining and Geology, who worked on parts of the Study, explained to Demostat what the Study represents.

Professor Lilic says that, in accordance with the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment, impact assessment studies are done in the phase between obtaining approval for the exploitation field and approval for the execution of mining works.

In addition to the main project as the basic technical documentation, approval of the Ministry of Environmental Protection on the impact assessment study is required for approval for the execution of mining works.

Lilic states that the investor, i.e. Rio Tinto, has applied for approval for the exploitation field, after which, in accordance with the Law on Mining, it is necessary to prepare a feasibility study and, among other documents and licences, obtain a decision on the scope and content of the impact assessment study.

“The investor submitted the request and received (decision on the scope and content of the study) and then it was discontinued, i.e. the special purpose spatial plan was withdrawn, which is one of the basic documents on the basis of which the location conditions for all projects are obtained. Then the process was suspended“, Lilic said.

The Law on Impact Assessment states that the impact study can be done by individuals, entrepreneurs, who are registered for performing certain activities, design, engineering, preparation of studies, explains Professor Lilic.

Impact assessment studies, especially in complex projects such as Jadar, must be done by teams, a range of experts who have the necessary competencies.

Each participant working on the impact assessment study, a member of the team, must have a higher education in a specific field that is domain and at least five years of experience or a title of responsible designer, which entails a certain professional responsibility.

When the study is published, the public insight is envisaged, i.e. public discussions and consultations with the public who ask questions and give remarks regarding the study.

Additionally, according to the law, the Ministry engages a technical commission, composed of experts, experts of the Ministry and external experts, who give their opinion and proposal based on the objections of the local community, environmental companies, non-governmental organizations, based on their competencies and their analysis on what the project is planned, how the assessment was made, what protection measures are envisaged and what can be expected, and gives an opinion and proposal to the government whether or not it will accept the impact assessment study.

Professor Lilic also points out that the draft studies are the result of many years of research, monitoring and analysis of environmental quality.

When asked how citizens should be confident in the credibility of this process and the autonomy of decision-making, Belji? says that the entire decision-making process is defined by laws and sub-laws, that there is a clear procedure from which citizens are not excluded, and that the problem is that the whole process has stopped.

“In order for you to have a good, right, correct attitude towards it, you have to let both parties do their job - for the company to come out with solutions, for the public to see these solutions, to be heard. However, in this country the cheering atmosphere was created, according to the law “who spits better”.The procedure is clear, there are no unknowns, nowhere and nowhere in letters the public is excluded, no secret decisions are made, they cannot be made, we can testify to the numerous mining projects that are being done“, says Professor Beljic.

Lilic states that it is worst to make extreme conclusions without serious professional discussion, and that decisions must be made for the benefit of the whole society.

"Everyone refers  to an event in Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, it is used and misused for various purposes. I would not offend anyone, that event in SANU was the beginning of the conversation, you had three of all the presentations and stories there who knew what was happening on the project, the others had no idea how the concept of mining activities was conceived. At this event in the Academy, these are all our exceptional experts, but if you do not have information, you can be very expert, but there can be very wrong conclusions and attempts at analysis“, said Lilic, adding that, when it comes to mining, there were very serious failures and replacement of theses.

He points out that he expected the responsible Ministry and the Government of Serbia to raise the issue and to involve all professional and meritorious institutions in the country in the field of mining, engineering, natural sciences, in order to meritoriously discuss the project and draw conclusions.

Professor Beljic also states that the important fact that Rio Tinto has been in Serbia since 2004 is overlooked, and that it has invested a lot of money, and that it has certain rights, in accordance with Serbian laws that are harmonized with the acts that are valid in well-developed countries.

“One can ask what you waited for, gentlemen, 20 years to react, what was good 15 years ago, and now is not good, where you before that time“, asked Belji?.

He explains that when a company receives an approval for research, it acquires the right to receive an approval for exploitation if it does not violate legal obligations during operation, and that Rio Tinto can ask what they did not do under Serbian laws.

Professor Beljic says that the fact that mining is aggressive towards the environment is used, but that it does not mention the fact that 70 percent of electricity is obtained from coal, that we all use phones and that this is simply a tribute to civilization and technological progress that will not go backwards.

Professor Lilic states that relativization is very present in Serbian society in a turbulent political situation and that the worst thing is not to trust anyone.

“We should not be distrustful. A certain dose of skepticism and mistrust must exist, but we expected the Ministry to organize an expert discussion, when it was already seen in which direction everything was going“, he said.

Lilic says that the special purpose spatial plan, which was later abolished, was democratically adopted, and that this was minutely followed up in public, as well as the Strategic Impact Assessment Study.

“People have to understand that they have to take their participation if they want to exercise rights and their doubts to confirm, they have to take part through the institutions of the system, I do not know how else they would otherwise“, he said.