Vladan Jakovljevic checks on beehives outside the village of Gornje Nedelice in western Serbia's fertile Jadar Valley on August 6. Darko Vojnovic/AP Hide caption
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JADAR VALLEY, Serbia — Vladan Jakovljevic's bees are angry: When he slowly lifted the cover from over one of his dozens of hives, they swarmed and one stung him on the cheek in what he calls a “bee kiss.”
The 63-year-old beekeeper's hives are dotted along a hillside overlooking the pastoral green hills and red-tiled roofs of villages in western Serbia's Jada Valley. Bees are sensitive creatures, Jakovljevic points out. Any change in the environment could wipe out the hives. That's why he's concerned about plans to build one of Europe's largest lithium mines in the valley.
“If the mine pollutes the river, the bees in this area will drink the water and die,” he says, “which could kill 10,000 colonies of bees that pollinate the crops in the valley. This could have a devastating chain reaction.”
The transition to a low-carbon future depends on electric vehicles, whose batteries rely on lithium, a mineral in short supply and high demand. But mining and refining lithium can have a significant impact on the local environment, and residents of the Jadhar Valley have fought to protect their environment, sparking nationwide protests that have highlighted the environmental shortcomings of the electric vehicle (EV) industry.
In the valley below Jakovljević's beehive lies the village of Latina, whose name means “salty” in English. Hundreds of feet below the surface of the Jadar Valley lie salty deposits that give the drinking water here its distinctive taste.
Decades ago, scientists discovered a new mineral here, rich in lithium and boron, which they named Jadarite. After the Balkan wars in the 1990s, Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto drilled exploratory wells in the Jadarite valley and found one of Europe's largest lithium reserves. The reserves are so large they could meet an estimated 90% of Europe's lithium demand, a boon for a continent focused on transitioning to electric vehicles to reduce emissions, and a surefire profit for mining giant Rio Tinto.
Scientists warn of potential environmental problems
The company recently drilled more exploratory wells, but a study published last month in Scientific Reports found that water seeping up from deep underground is killing nearby crops and polluting rivers. Scientists found “significantly elevated concentrations of boron, arsenic, and lithium downstream from the wells.”
“The mine would multiply problems such as tailings ponds, mine wastewater, noise, air and light pollution, endangering the livelihoods of many local communities and destroying freshwater sources, farmland, livestock and property,” the scientists wrote.
Multinational company Rio Tinto's test drilling holes are seen in a field in Serbia's Jadar Valley on August 6. Darko Vojnovic/AP Hide caption
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Beekeeper Yakovlevich said he was shocked when he read the article.
“After reading the scientists' findings, I don't need to hear anything more about this project,” he said. “This mine must be stopped.”
Officials say it will meet strict standards and boost GDP
But Serbian government officials say the mine has great potential for the country. “We all drink the same water, we all breathe the same air, our children live here,” said Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic, Serbia's Minister of Mining and Energy. “So we want this project to go ahead, but we want it to be done according to environmental standards.”
Jedovic Handanovic insists the proposed mine will adhere to strict EU environmental standards, even though Serbia is not yet a member of the EU.
A house in the Gjadal Valley purchased by Rio Tinto is being demolished to make way for a lithium mine. Rob Schmitz/NPR Hide caption
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And she emphasizes the mine's economic benefits: “It has the potential to create around 20,000 jobs throughout the value chain,” she says. “When we talk about the value chain, we're not just talking about the development of the mine, but also the refining process, including the production of cathodes, the production of batteries, and ultimately the production of electric vehicles.”
She said the lithium mine could increase Serbia's gross domestic product by 16 percent.
Protests against the mine are becoming commonplace
But many Serbians are not convinced. Massive protests against the project have become commonplace in the country's cities since a court ruling in June cleared the way for the government to approve the mine. The decision came two years after a former prime minister revoked Rio Tinto's license following similar protests.
Jelena Jazevski was one of tens of thousands of people who recently took to the streets of the capital, Belgrade, to protest against the mine.
“We are here to say no to the corporate forces that are squeezing the resources out of our country, only to dig it up and leave trash, literally trash, for future generations,” she said, drowned out by chants from protesters.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the town of Loznica in western Serbia on June 28 to protest against a lithium mining project. Vladimir Živojinovic/AFP via Getty Images Hide caption
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Critics of the mine like Jazevski also question the Serbian government's political motives. Serbia is applying for EU membership, and Germany, the EU's largest economy and home to the continent's biggest electric-vehicle company, has voiced strong support for the mine. Europe's richest economy has long wanted to move away from reliance on China, which refines 80% of the world's lithium for EV batteries. Just weeks after the legal path was cleared for the Jadár mine, the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding with the Serbian government to launch a “strategic partnership” on sustainable raw materials like lithium, the battery value chain and electric vehicles.
Jazevski says the EU should look for lithium within the 27-nation bloc. “Serbia is not the only place that has it,” he says. “Why would this happen in a country like Serbia, where they say they have no right to fight back? Doesn't France have lithium?”
Opponents of the mine also question the track record of mining giant Rio Tinto, which has a checkered history in developing countries around the world, including mines in Papua New Guinea where environmental destruction sparked a nine-year civil war.
Rio Tinto promises 'transparency' and independent review
But Chad Blewitt, Rio Tinto's general manager for Serbia, says times have changed. “We're committed to transparency,” he says. “We've learned from all sorts of events, like the civil war in Papua New Guinea 35 years ago, which has led to a lot of local content programming on a global scale, because we have to give back to the communities we serve.”
Blewitt's own history with Rio Tinto included working as manager at the company's Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea in 2011, the same year that investigators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission found that company executives had bribed a Guinean political adviser. Last year, Rio Tinto settled the violations with the SEC for $15 million.
In the case of the J'adal mine, Blewitt says Rio Tinto is ready to hire independent experts to conduct an environmental study of the project if it helps convince people who question the ecological impact. As it stands, Blewitt calls J'adal “the best-studied lithium project in Europe” and says Rio Tinto has invested more than $600 million in the project to date and that studies have found it to be safe.
Part of the company's effort is education. Blewitt says Rio Tinto has held 150 information sessions for local communities, and Serbia's mining ministry has set up a call center to ease concerns about the project and the company. “Last year, we spent $85 million on community programs around the world,” Blewitt says. “We've paid $8.5 billion in tax revenue to governments around the world, so don't judge Rio Tinto by its past record.”
In the Jadari Valley, beekeeper Jakovljevic asks how he and his neighbours can judge Rio Tinto if they can't judge the company by its past.
Vladan Jakovljevic looks out over the Jadar Valley, where the beekeeper says the bees that pollinate the region's crops are under threat from environmental damage caused by Rio Tinto's proposed lithium mine. Rob Schmitz/NPR Hide caption
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On a hot summer day, I showed him her neighbor, literature teacher Marijana Petkovic, and her dog, sipping a cold drink in the shade. Petkovic pointed to a house across the field behind her property, where her neighbors had sold their land to Rio Tinto. Dozens of homes in the valley were taped off and being demolished to make way for the project.
Petkovic has been following the issue closely. Rio Tinto needs hundreds of more acres for the mine, but he says people in the valley don't think they'll sell their land. “They're going from house to house asking their neighbours if they need anything and if Rio Tinto can help them,” Petkovic says.
Employees work out of an information center the company set up in the valley, which Petkovic calls a “disinformation” center. The Serbian government had already tried to change the law to allow it to confiscate land from homeowners, but protests several years ago thwarted that, Petkovic said.
But she said the local government recently rezoned her and her neighbors' land from “agriculture” to “construction,” and she fears they may try to take her land again. She says she worries about the future of the valley — and of Serbia.
