Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) is boosting efforts to win public support for its $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project in Serbia, which has been halted since 2022 because of stern opposition due to environmental concerns.
The world’s second largest miner has been pushing since to resume work on the project, expected to be Europe’s biggest mine of the battery metal. With projected production of 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year, Jadar could supply enough lithium to power one million electric vehicles and meet 90% of Europe’s current lithium needs.
Last month, Serbia reinstated Rio Tinto’s licence to develop Jadar. The miner will have to secure approvals to move towards production at the site, which will hinge on its environmental impact study, Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said last month.
Experts estimate it could take Rio two years to obtain the permits needed to start construction.
Chief executive officer Jakob Stausholm visited western Serbia in early September, joining President Aleksandar Vučić, to discuss the issue with locals face to face.
Stausholm noted that Rio Tinto was “very good” at learning from mistakes and not repeating them.
“The topic of the project’s development confuses, disturbs, and divides people,” he wrote in an opinion column published by Politika newspaper, according to Beta news agency.
Rio’s boss also noted there was plenty of incorrect and misinterpreted information circulating about the project and the company, calling it “a carefully designed and well-organized campaign to spread misinformation”.
Vucic’s administration has touted the project as a boost to the economy. Finance Minister Sinisa Mali has said that lithium mining, if complemented by local production of batteries and electric vehicles, could add as much as €12 billion ($13.4 billion) annually to Serbia’s economic output.
“You’re not going to get to talk about economic benefits, which are immense for the people of Serbia, until you deal with the concerns over environmental impacts, human health,” Chad Blewitt, Rio Tinto’s managing director for Serbia, told the Financial Times in an interview on Tuesday.
Jadar would propel Rio Tinto onto the world’s top 10 lithium producers podium. Its original estimated cost of $2.4 billion has likely climbed above $3 billion, accounting for inflation and currency movement, Barclays said in a recent research note.
Over the past six years, Rio has been expanding its footprint in the battery market. In 2018, it reportedly attempted to buy a $5bn stake in Chile’s SQM, the world’s second largest lithium producer.
In April 2021, the miner kicked off lithium production from waste rock at a demonstration plant located at a borates mine it controls in California.
Rio took another key step into the lithium market in 2022, completing the acquisition of the Rincon lithium project in Argentina, which has reserves of almost two million tonnes of contained lithium carbonate equivalent, sufficient for a 40-year mine life.
The company plans to develop a battery-grade lithium carbonate plant at Rincon with an annual capacity of 3,000 tonnes and has earmarked $350 million to invest in the project.
13 Comments
Nikola
There will be no digging!
Go ahead and dig in Germany and Western Europe
Ana Jakovljevic
Rio Tinto, get out of Serbia! We don’t want your money, we want our land, you are not welcome!
Jelena
Serbian citizens doesn’t want Rio Tinto, we want to have clean water and soil. We also don’t want electric cars ….
Dusko Rakocevic
Rio Tinto not welcome to Serbia
Kliment
Never gonna happen. There will be no mines.
Depleted Uranium
Western friends of Serbia can also mine for depleted uranium they left in Serbia during 1999. NATO bombing.
Aleks
We don’t want Rio Tinto polluting our environment. It is a dirty project sacrificing our land and clean waters for the German profits. Rio Tinto get out of Serbia we don’t want you here!
Ivica
Get out of our country, go dig in Germany
Vlajko
Get of your dirty hands from Serbia!!!
We don’t need electric cars,so you can do mining in EU!!!
Average Serbian
The whole irony here really is that average serbian does noy have money for an electric cars. And we know the mine wont help our economy, surely wont if Rio Tinto do it while we have this government. Too many bad calls from Rio in past. Too many bad calls from our present government.
There will be no digging, or in serbian –
NEĆEŠ KOPATI!
Mike
“The world’s second largest miner has been pushing since to resume work on the project, expected to be Europe’s biggest mine of the battery metal.”
Pure lie, the mineral jadarit contains only 1.8% of the elemental lithium or 7.3% of the Li2O (lithium oxide). Respectfully the chemical composition of the entire jadarit molecule is: “Wet chemical analysis combined with CHN analyzer gave the following aggregate composition: Li2O 7.3, Na2O 15.0, SiO2 26.4, B2O3 47.2, H2O 4.3, total 100.2 wt.%.” This citation comes from the Canadian National Research Council, which did the test on the mineral. Therefore the dominant element is boron 13% or B2O3 boron trioxide 47.2%. From the data provided by the CNRC we see that in the jadarit all other elements, natrium and silicon are much higher in the contest than lithium. Consequently, Rio Tinto is not interested in jadarit because of the lithium but for boron. The entire mass of the jadarit in Jadar-Dol is 141 million metric tons of which only half is beneficial for exploitation. That is 600 hundred thousand metric tons of lithium where boron content is 9 million metric tons (one-half of 18 metric tons mt). The price of elemental lithium is around $145 thousand per metric ton. The price of 99.9999% elemental boron is $2,383 million. What is Rio Tinto interested in, lithium or boron?
Furthermore, the yearly salary of the gangster Stausholm president of Rio Tinto is $6.1 million per year. How much if the mine be opened he will pay the miners in Serbia? The same way as the Duke Power Company in 1973, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3wOA2ZTg4.
The Rio Tinto care less about the environment as well https://www.naturepl.com/blog/2019/09/25/clip-of-the-week-source-of-the-rio-tinto-river/
Therefore, Rio Tinto should not be allowed to open mine in Serbia.
Lisa
Rio Tinto will not do dirty business in Serbia because Serbian people make final decision, not traitor Vucic and SNS puppets. Rio Tinto to go back to Germany and dig there since they claim is safe for the environment
Zelenacija
Rio’s boss also noted there was plenty of incorrect and misinterpreted information circulating about the project and the company, calling it “a carefully designed and well-organized campaign to spread misinformation”
By who exactly? What is this shadow agency that has more money than Rio Tinto and its backers?