Serbia facing strategic choices

FACTA

FUTURA

Serbia possesses significant lithium reserves (estimated at up to 1.2 million tons – 11th place in the world). The Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto's project estimates potential extraction at a level of 58,000 tons per year, which would place Serbia 2nd in the world (behind Australia, which extracts 86,000 tons per year, and ahead of Chile with 44,000 tons per year). Lithium resources are crucial for modern technologies and particularly for the decarbonization of energy. They are critically important for the EU, which significantly lags behind the world in lithium extraction and processing (in Europe, lithium is only mined in Portugal at a level of 380 tons per year). On July 19, 2024, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding with Serbia on critical raw materials, battery value chains, and electric vehicles. However, the launch of lithium mining in Serbia has long faced public opposition.

The lithium mining project in Serbia, which had been halted in 2022 and subsequently revived in 2024, could significantly strengthen Europe's raw material self-sufficiency in this key segment. It could also become an additional impetus for accelerating Serbia's EU accession process. At the same time, it would provide a significant economic stimulus to Serbia's economy. The investment, estimated at 6 billion euros, would be the largest foreign investment in the country's history. The problem is the significant public opposition to lithium mining, with recent protests also being linked to reports of an alleged coup attempt in Serbia. Since the source of the reports was Russia, the issue, apart from its geo-economic dimension, clearly also takes on a geopolitical dimension.