Mon Jan 24, 2022 – 4:59 pm EST
BELGRADE, Serbia (LifeSiteNews) – Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić announced Thursday that the eastern European nation terminated a lucrative lithium mining project with Australian firm Rio Tinto, days after Australia booted Serbian tennis ace Novak Djokovic over his stance on the coronavirus jabs.
Citing environmental concerns raised by citizens, including Djokovic, Brnabić said that the Serbian government has “fulfilled all the demands from the environmental protests and have put an end to Rio Tinto in the Republic of Serbia” in a televised address on January 20.
“All decisions and all licences have been annulled. As far as the project Jadar is concerned, this is the end,” the prime minister added.
The Jadar project in western Serbia, near the town of Loznica, was to be Rio Tinto’s flagship project into which the mining giant had already injected $450 million. The company had hoped that excavating the reserve would be worth $2.4 billion and have placed them among the world’s top 10 lithium miners.
Rio Tinto said it was “blindsided” by the government’s decision to cancel the project.
The termination of the deal initially caused Rio Tinto’s stock to dip
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