Rio Tinto Director: Awaiting Key Permits for Jadar Project

Rio Tinto's Information Center, Gornje Nedeljice(BETAPHOTO/MILAN TIMOTIC/DS)

The Rio Tinto company is working on securing the permit for the environmental impact study and other licenses, including the exploitation field license, in order to move on with the Jadar lithium project, executive director of the Jadar project Chad Blewitt said in an interview to the SeeNews portal.

Earlier, Rio Tinto intended to complete the construction of the underground mine in western Serbia in 2026 and start production in 2027. “Under ideal conditions, after we successfully update the environmental impact study, carry out the public debates and obtain all the required licenses and regulatory permits, construction could start within the next few years,” Blewitt stated in a reply by e-mail to the SeeNews.com portal’s question about which phase the project was currently in.

The Serbian Ministry for Environment Protection, which is to issue the final decision to Rio Tinto about the scope and contents of the environmental impact study, did not reply to the question from SeeNews. Blewitt said that, after the Ministry brings the decision, Rio Tinto would have one year to complete the study.

If the Jadar project were to be developed, it would be the biggest “greenfield” lithium project in the world, with the total output of 2.3 million tons of lithium-carbonate over the expected operating period of 40 years, or 58,000 tons per year. According to Blewitt, this would position Rio Tinto among the ten leading world producers of lithium.