Jan 25 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto's chief
executive said on Tuesday he was concerned about the Serbian
prime minister's comments against the company's lithium project,
in his first remarks after Belgrade revoked the global mining
company's exploration licences.
Bowing to environmentalists, Serbian Prime Minister Ana
Brnabic pulled the plug on Rio's lithium project https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/serbian-government-revokes-rio-tintos-licences-lithium-project-2022-01-20
last week and accused Rio of providing insufficient information
to communities about the project.
"We obviously are very concerned about the comments made by
the prime minister," Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm told
Reuters in an interview.
Stausholm was speaking after the company reached an
agreement with Mongolia https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/rio-tinto-mongolia-settle-long-running-dispute-over-oyu-tolgoi-copper-mine-2022-01-24/#:~:text=Jan%2025%20(Reuters)%20-%20Rio,Tolgoi%20copper-gold%20mining%20project
to end a long-running dispute over the $6.925 billion expansion
project for the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mining project.
"I'm very proud of what we've done there (in Serbia). We
have always followed the laws and regulation in Serbia as we
focused on that amazing project," he said.
"Right now we are just trying to take care of our people in
the country," he said, adding he had nothing further to say
about Serbia.
Rio is reviewing the legal basis for the decision and could
sue Serbia as it tries to salvage https://www.reuters.com/article/rio-tinto-serbia/analysis-rio-tinto-has-few-options-to-save-serbia-lithium-mine-none-good-idINL1N2U1232
the $2.4 billion project.
The company committed to the Serbian project last year, as
global miners pushed for the metals needed for the green energy
transition, including lithium, which is used to make electric
vehicle batteries.
The mine was slated to produce enough lithium to power 1
million electric vehicles, in addition to boric acid, used in
ceramics and batteries, and sodium sulphate, used in detergents.
At full capacity, the mine was expected to produce 58,000
tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year,
making it Europe's biggest lithium mine by output.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston and Praveen Menon in
Wellington; Editing by Chris Reese)
Rio Tinto (RIO)
