Serbia PM Sees No Chance in Reviving RT Li ProjectInteresting times ahead for residents of Loznica in Western Serbia!
https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-12-13/Serbian-PM-sees-no-chance-for-reviving-Rio-Tinto-lithium-project.html https://balkaninsight.com/2022/04/13/its-not-over-the-past-and-present-of-lithium-mining-in-serbia/ In July last year, Loznica local authorities amended the municipality’s spatial plan in order to align it with the spatial plan already adopted for the special purpose area of the Jadar project, previously adopted by Governments Decree. Agricultural land was reclassified as construction land, railway lines were moved and gas pipeline plans changed. All that, even before the project had received the necessary permits.
According to the Podrinje Anti-Corruption Team, PAKT, an NGO in western Serbia and fierce critic of the Rio Tinto project, the Faculty of Mining and Geology has earned more than million euros from Rio Tinto for research work. Professor Biljana Abolmasov, the dean of the faculty, told BIRN the sum was around one million, but over a period of 17 years. “The work of our experts costs,” she said, but denied Rio Tinto had any influence over the objectivity of the faculty’s staff. Rio Tinto has not confirmed the sum.
Some things just never change!
https://balkaninsight.com/2021/10/25/lithium-lobbying-the-mining-plan-in-serbia-thats-too-big-to-fail/ I find it really out of character for a Major global mining Company to spend $X amount prior to obtaining the necessary permits for authorization to complete work?
Red flags tell me shenanigans between RT & Serbian employees in positions of authority were probably occurring prior to the shutdown of the Li Project.
You have heard the expression "where there is smoke there usually is fire".This definitely is not the squeeky clean image you want to portray when your trying to get into the EU club!
(bb-99)