Farms and cornfields dot the gentle rolling plains of Serbia’s Jadar Valley, but beneath the bucolic surface lies one of Europe’s largest lithium deposits – the source fueling the latest wave of unrest in the region. Balkan nation.

The future of the vast mineral deposits near the town of Loznica has become the last flashpoint in Serbia, pitting festering mistrust of the country’s increasingly autocratic government against Europe’s plans for a greener future .

Billions are at stake with Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto bragging that the project has the potential to add a percentage point to Serbia’s gross domestic product and create thousands of jobs.

In a matter of years, this impoverished corner of Serbia nestled against the Bosnian border could be transformed into one of the industrial engines supercharging Europe’s transition to low-carbon technology seen as vital for a greener future.

Lithium is a key ingredient for batteries powering electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, with increasing demand for the ore triggering a “white gold rush” as automakers scramble to secure sufficient supplies to achieve their ambitious objectives of deploying new fleets in the years to come.

But environmental activists and residents living near the future mine site have accused Rio Tinto and the administration of President Aleksandar Vucic of covering up the entire project and refusing to release environmental assessment reports.

The lack of transparency, residents say, is fueling fears that the mine will leave their land in ruins.

“If the Jadar project is successful, everything around us will be destroyed,” Dragan Karajcic, a community leader in the village of Gornje Nedeljice, told AFP.

“Everywhere Rio Tinto has operated, it has left a wasteland behind,” he added.

– Struggle for power –

In Serbia, the mining project has drawn on the smoldering anger against Vucic. Thousands of people have taken to key roads across the country in recent weeks to voice their opposition to the government’s handling of the project.

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Violent attacks by masked men on a protest in the western Serbian town of Sabac in late November sparked outrage on social media as well as accusations that the government was relying on hooligans to crush dissent.

With an election likely to come early next year, Vucic has sought to ease the mounting pressure, pledging to remove amendments to one law and remove another law that protesters said was written for offer favorable conditions to Rio Tinto.

The chief also insisted that the future of the mine is up for debate.

“I’m going to have to sit down and see if we basically want this mine or not,” the president said on Wednesday evening.

Reaching the minerals won’t be an easy task, as significant excavation work will be required to provide enough lithium to power more than one million electric vehicles a year, according to Rio Tinto.

The neighboring area is also home to large reserves of borate needed for the production of solar panels and wind turbines.

The mine is expected to be located along the Jadar River, a tributary of the larger Drina, a vital source for agricultural production in Serbia and neighboring Bosnia.

Any contamination caused by the project along the banks of the Jadar would be felt much further away, campaigners argue.

Rio Tinto has sought to allay growing fears about the project, promising to meet “the highest environmental standards,” according to a statement posted online.

But residents of Gornje Nedeljice say Rio Tinto’s record has given them pause.

In recent years, the mining giant has been mired in controversy, with a public backlash and investor revolt forcing the company’s CEO and some senior officials to step down after the company destroyed a sacred indigenous site in Australia. Last year.

Critics of the mine also point to the Vucic government’s poor record in regulating its industrial sector as Serbia courted Chinese companies to invest in the country.

-‘No one is dumping ground’-

In Gornje Nedeljice, signs saying: “No to the mine. Yes to life” hang throughout the village, where Rio Tinto has purchased large tracts of land – offering virtual fortunes for the residents’ plots that would only bring in ‘a fraction of the price elsewhere.

The company is expected to open the land on the mine next year, but is still awaiting the final green light from Belgrade.

Rio Tinto has pledged that the project will create more than 2,000 jobs during its construction phase and another 1,000 mining and processing jobs once it is operational.

But for Gornje Nedeljice resident Marijana Petkovic and others, the potential benefits of the mine put their community’s health and environment at risk at the behest of their wealthier European neighbors.

“Serbia needs to understand that we are not a dumping ground for mining,” says Petkovic. “Not that of Europe, nor that of the world.”

ds / rl / spm