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The transition to a lower carbon future depends on electric vehicles, and the batteries in those vehicles depend on lithium. That's a mineral in short supply and in big demand. But mining lithium can have an outsized impact on the local environment. NPR Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz reports on why a proposed lithium mine in Serbia is spurring social unrest.
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ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Vladan Jakovljevic's bees are angry. As he lifts a hive cover, they swarm, one of them stinging him in the cheek. He calls it a bee kiss.
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SCHMITZ: Beekeeping is Jakovljevic's livelihood here on a hillside overlooking the Yarra Valley's bucolic green hills and red-clay-tile-roofed villages of Western Serbia. Bees, he points out, are sensitive creatures. Changes in the environment can wipe out their hives. That's why Yakovlavich is worried about plans to build a lithium mine in this valley.
VLADAN JAKOVLJEVIC: (Non-English language spoken).
SCHMITZ: If there is any pollution in the river from this mine, bees in this region will die because they drink the water. We're talking about 10,000 bee communities that pollinate the crops that grow in the valley. This could cause a devastating chain reaction, he says.
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SCHMITZ: In the valley below Yakovlavich's beehives lies the village of Loznica, salty in English. Hundreds of feet below the surface lie salty mineral deposits. Decades ago, scientists here discovered a new mineral they named jadarite, one rich in lithium. After the Balkan wars of the 1990s, British Australian mining company Rio Tinto began drilling exploratory wells here, confirming that the Yarra Valley is one of Europe's largest deposits of lithium, one so big it's now estimated to meet 90% of Europe's lithium needs - huge for a continent transitioning to electric vehicles to cut vehicle emissions, and for mining giant Rio Tinto, guaranteed profits.
The company recently drilled more exploratory wells, but the water that surfaced has killed surrounding crops and polluted the river, according to a study published last month in the journal Nature. The study found, quote, "substantially elevated concentrations of boron, arsenic and lithium downstream from the wells." If the mine goes forward, said the article, problems will be multiplied.
JAKOVLJEVIC: (Speaking Serbian).
SCHMITZ: "After I read those findings," says Yakovlavich, "I thought to myself, this mine must be stopped."
DUBRAVKA DEDOVIC HANDANOVIC: We all drink the same water. And we all breathe the same air. And we all have kids living here.
SCHMITZ: Dubravka Dedovic Handanovic is Serbia's minister of mining and energy.
DEDOVIC HANDANOVIC: We want the project implemented, yes, but we want it implemented according to environmental standards.
SCHMITZ: Dedovic Handanovic insists the proposed mine would adhere to strict European Union environmental standards, even though Serbia has not yet become an EU member. And she highlights the mine's economic benefits.
DEDOVIC HANDANOVIC: Around 20,000 people could be employed in the whole value chain. We are not only talking the exploitation of the mine but refining processes, including the production of cathodes, production of batteries and ultimately the production of electric vehicles.
SCHMITZ: She says this lithium mine has the potential to increase Serbia's GDP by 16%, but that does not seem to be persuading many Serbs.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in Serbian).
SCHMITZ: Massive protests against the project have become routine throughout the country since June, when a court decision cleared the path for the government to approve the mine. The decision came two years after a previous prime minister revoked Rio Tinto's license following similar protests. Jelena Isevski was one of tens of thousands that recently filled the streets of the capital Belgrade to protest the mine.
JELENA ISEVSKI: We are here to say that we are saying no to corporate powers that are going to extract our country, just dig it out and leave trash, literally trash and poison that's going to poison future generations.
SCHMITZ: Protesters like Isevski also question the political motivations of the Serbian government. Serbia has applied for EU membership. And the EU's largest economy, Germany, home to Europe's largest electric vehicle companies, has voiced its strong support for this mine. Europe's wealthiest economies have for years wanted to shift away from depending on China, which refines 80% of the world's lithium for EV batteries. Last month the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding with Serbia's government, launching what it called a strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials like lithium. Isevski says the EU should look inside the EU for its lithium.
ISEVSKI: It's not only Serbia that has lithium. So why is this being done in a country like Serbia that allegedly doesn't have the right to fight back? So there's lithium in France, right?
SCHMITZ: Opponents of the mine also question the track record of mining giant Rio Tinto, which has a checkered history in developing countries throughout the world, including a mine in Papua New Guinea, whose environmental destruction spurred a nine-year civil war. But Rio Tinto's manager of its Serbia operations, Chad Blewitt, says times have changed.
CHAD BLEWITT: We are committed to transparency. We've learned from all those incidents, including where there was a civil war in Papua New Guinea 35 years ago. That created a lot of our local content programs globally because, you know, we have to give back to the community.
SCHMITZ: Blewitt says Rio Tinto would be willing to allow independent experts to complete an environmental review of the Jadar Project. As it stands, Blewitt calls Jadar the most studied lithium project in Europe. He says Rio Tinto has spent more than $600 million on it so far. Blewitt says Rio Tinto has held 150 information sessions for the local community. And Serbia's Ministry of Mining has set up a call center to try and calm fears about the project and about his company.
BLEWITT: Last year we spent $85 million on community programs globally. We gave back to governments around the world 8.5 billion U.S. dollars in taxes. So, I would say, don't judge Rio Tinto what we are in the past.
SCHMITZ: Back in the Yarra Valley, beekeeper Vladan Jakovljevic says if he and his neighbors can't judge Rio Tinto by what it's done in the past, then how should they judge the company?
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SCHMITZ: He's joined by a neighbor, Marijana Petkovic, and her dog for cool drinks on a hot day. Petkovic points to homes across the fields, where neighbors have sold their land to Rio Tinto. Dozens of homes in this valley are cordoned off with tape and are being demolished to make way for the project. But Petkovic says Rio Tinto still needs hundreds of more acres of land to build the mine, and she doesn't think the rest of the valley's residents are willing to sell.
MARIJANA PETKOVIC: (Speaking Serbian).
SCHMITZ: She says Rio Tinto staff are going house to house asking if people need anything or any help. They work at an information center the company established in the valley. But Petkovic calls it a disinformation center. She says the Serbian government has already tried to change the law so that they can expropriate land from homeowners, but protests a few years ago put a stop to it. But she says the local government recently rezoned her and her neighbors land from agricultural to construction, and that, she says, worries her about the future of this valley and for Serbia. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, the Yarra Valley, Serbia. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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