The Jadar Valley is an agricultural area in western Serbia. Rio Tinto wanted to start mining lithium there, an essential part of batteries for electric cars, for example.
The government’s decision comes as a surprise. The presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the spring may be delayed and the prime minister hopes for additional support from voters.
In 2006 lithium deposits were discovered around the city of Loznica. Rio Tinto would invest 2.1 billion euros in the project and had already started buying up land in the area. Environmentalists and residents of the Jadar Valley protested against the lithium mine for several weeks.
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