The difference in environmental impact between obtaining lithium from water or ore, according to findings from experts, ranges from 100 to 1,000 times, says Dr. Dragana Đorđević from the Institute of Chemistry, Technology, and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade. What problems does this pose? So far, extracting lithium from rocks has been associated with corruption and violations of human and workers’ rights. In Europe, there is currently no active lithium mine.
Recently, testing began in the first plant for extracting lithium from geothermal sources in Germany. According to reports, this process is environmentally friendly, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are zero, as indicated by an environmental study.
While traditional methods of lithium production consume large amounts of water, land, and significantly pollute the air, in this case, 1.6 tons of water and six square meters of land are used per ton of produced lithium hydroxide.
According to the plan from this geothermal source, the expected annual production is 24,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, which is sufficient for the production of 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
The second variant of this model involves extracting lithium from saline salt flat solutions through the evaporation process. This is the case in the so-called “lithium triangle” – the Atacama Desert on the border of Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia, where approximately 70% of the world’s lithium reserves are found. It is relatively easy to exploit because it is obtained from near the surface of the earth, and solar energy is used during the process. However, it requires significant water consumption, averaging around two million liters per ton of lithium.
In contrast, mining methods for lithium extraction from rocks emit between 10 and 30 tons of CO2 per ton of lithium. Apart from air pollution, this mining method requires the use of large quantities of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, which can have a devastating impact on the environment, including air, water, and soil. Permanent damage can also be caused by tailings filled with toxic substances.
“Without a doubt, it is the worst way to extract lithium. In addition to lithium, rocks contain a variety of minerals that must be separated through aggressive chemical processes. When it comes to the jadarite ore found in western Serbia, it is not pure; it is found in sedimentary carbonate rock, with prevailing calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate,” says Dragana Đorđević, a scientific advisor and head of the Center of Excellence for Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at the Institute of Chemistry, Technology, and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade.
As emphasized by Dr. Dragana Đorđević, it is not true that Rio Tinto discovered jadarite.
“Jelena Obradović from the Faculty of Mining and Geology found lithium in Jadar in the 1980s. Her assistant conveyed the information to Rio Tinto. The news spread to the public that Rio Tinto had found lithium. This was done because, by law, whoever discovers the ore has priority rights for exploitation,” says Dr. Dragana Đorđević, a scientific advisor and head of the Center of Excellence for Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at the Institute of Chemistry, Technology, and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade.
She also points out that the rock containing jadarite and carbonates has many impurities, which is a problem.
“To extract lithium and boron, which is abundant in jadarite, the entire rock must be destroyed through crushing and grinding, followed by chemical treatment using acids,” says Dr. Dragana Đorđević, a scientific advisor and head of the Center of Excellence for Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at the Institute of Chemistry, Technology, and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade.
Đorđević emphasizes a Rio Tinto document stating that 1,110 tons of concentrated sulfuric acid and 15 tons of hydrochloric acid will be used daily. These are highly toxic acids and among the most aggressive.
Professor Nenad Kostić, a Serbian chemist who spent his career working at universities in the United States and is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, stated that the amount of sulfuric acid required by the mining company does not exist in our country. This could mean either importing it or building a sulfuric acid factory.
Let’s recall that in Serbia, there have been several accidents in the recent period where tankers carrying hazardous materials such as ammonia and sulfuric acid derailed from the tracks.
Regarding the strength of these acids, Professor Kostić’s words testify to it. He had access to Rio Tinto’s patent application submitted to the U.S. Patent Office, which stated that diluting sulfuric acid during the mining operation would require the water from the “entire Drina River.”
“At the time, Kostić said, ‘Ecological mining is like cold fire or dry water. It doesn’t exist.’”
In the mining zone, there are currently 20,000 people who mainly rely on agriculture but also on tourism and trade. According to the 2022 census data, the municipality of Loznica had a population of 72,062 people.
This region is characterized by abundant underground water, and the western part of our country is the area richest in water in Serbia.
The company Rio Tinto, on the “Questions and Answers” section of its website, states that the water consumption will be 8.3 litres per kilogram of “product,” or as mentioned in the company’s response to the N1 newsroom, “lithium carbonate.”
“The mentioned data is based on modelling from the Water Balance Study prepared in 2022 for the needs of the ‘Jadar’ Project, using data collected from hydrogeological research and pilot plant tests for processing jadarite ore conducted by our company before the regulation of the Government of the Republic of Serbia came into effect, which repealed the regulation on determining the spatial plan ‘Jadar,’ as well as based on which individual acts adopted for implementation were annulled,” Rio Tinto stated.
According to their statement, this water would primarily be used for dust suppression purposes, i.e., rinsing drilling equipment.
“About 78% of the raw water consists of rainwater, recycled water from the processing process, and purified mine water, while the remaining 22% would be water from the alluvium of the Drina River. This means that to obtain one kilogram of jadarite, approximately 40 millilitres of water from the alluvium of the Drina River would be used,” says the interviewee.
This data significantly differs from previous numerous studies that indicate significant degradation of air, water, soil, and potential contamination of groundwater. For instance, a scientific paper by a group of Chinese scientists states that 23,000 litres of water are needed for one kilogram of lithium carbonate.
Zoran Stevanović, a professor of geology, emphasizes that nowhere in the world has technology for successfully extracting lithium and borates from the jadarite deposit been developed and applied.
“Experiments were conducted in Australia at the company’s headquarters, and they can hardly guarantee the preservation of the environment in the ore mining area and the tailings formed for the planned volume of rock mass extraction,” said Stevanović to N1.
Rio Tinto has filed patents for extracting lithium from rocks in several countries but has not received approval for any of them.
Draga Đorđević states that the number of endangered entities will increase further because there are plans for a waste dump in the Jadro area, which will inevitably threaten the environment.
Rio Tinto experts have mentioned that they will install a two-millimetre-thick membrane below the waste dump, and that should be sufficient to protect the soil.
“All materials age; they can break. Maybe not after five or 10 years, but after 30, they can. I know their expert said that this membrane deteriorates five percent in 10 years. If that toxic content enters the environment, it means permanent destruction for thousands of years,” Dr. Đorđević notes.
She points out that there are plans for around 100 million tons of toxic waste characterized as hazardous waste.
All of this is planned to be located between two torrential rivers, Korenita and Jadro.
These are rivers that flood every year or two. The last time floods occurred was in June 2023 when the water reached the center of Loznica, and the hospital was also flooded.
“It will not only spread through Jadro but also through Mačva, and they are fertile thanks to the Drina alluvium, providing quality water for agriculture in that area,” adds our interlocutor.
Jadar and Mačva are areas of high vulnerability
Stevanović emphasizes that the mining zone was planned in the Drina basin, which is directly adjacent and hydraulically connected to the underground waters of Mačva, representing a “regionally significant source,” as recognized by the existing as well as the draft of the future republic Spatial Plan.
“The underground waters of Mačva are our natural treasure for future water supply, not only for this region but also for Posavina and Belgrade. To understand the particular sensitivity of the Mačva region, one only needs to look at the Map of Groundwater Vulnerability in Serbia, created by geologists for the needs of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning, as well as the Republic Water Directorate back in 2010. The entire Mačva, along with the Jadro, is marked as an area of very high vulnerability to pollution due to the significant porosity of both the surface and deeper high-productivity aquifer. Contaminated water, washed from the surface of the mining area and waste dumps, would easily penetrate the groundwater,” stated Đorđević.
Currently, there is no clear plan on how to treat large quantities of sulfuric acid without causing a catastrophe. As stated by Dragana Đorđević, there has been no insight into the technology so far, as everything, as she says, is presented in a foggy manner without specific material balances.
“Based on the descriptions they provided, we concluded that this would happen in some kind of reactors. In 2021, they explained that these reactors would be hermetically sealed. Since an enormous amount of carbon dioxide is released during the reaction between ore and sulfuric acid, that reactor should not be closed because it would explode. Acidic vapours, which corrode the skin, mucous membranes, and respiratory organs, also escape. The Biological Faculty stated in their study that it would lead to the erasure of the life network,” notes Dragana Đorđević.
On the other hand, Rio Tinto claims that emissions of sulfur dioxide from sulfuric acid would not occur because, as they say, the “ore would be processed at 90 degrees and not at 100.” Experts argue that a temperature of 100 to 250 degrees is necessary for this process.
As a reminder, according to the Program, the Republic of Serbia is supposed to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 92 percent, nitrogen oxides (NOx) by 60.6 percent, PM10 particles by 50.9 percent, PM 2.5 by 58.3 percent, volatile organic compounds (VOC) by 28.3 percent, and ammonia (NH3) by 20.5 percent by 2030.
The mines are in the deserts
As already mentioned, the largest lithium reserves are found in the desert regions of South America, where it is extracted from brine. Lithium can also be found in the deserts of Australia, and the only Western mine is located in the Nevada desert. There was a proposal to build another mine, also in the Nevada desert, but it was abandoned due to its environmental impact and the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. In Chile, all lithium deposits were recently nationalized.
Lithium is exclusively mined from rocks on the African continent, with the largest reserves found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Ghana, among others. Lithium mining in these countries is associated with corruption, health-hazardous working conditions, and violations of basic human rights.
For now, there is no lithium mine near human habitats, major water reservoirs, or fertile soil.
What’s happening in the EU – arrests and the fall of the government in Portugal
On the European continent, there is currently no active lithium deposit. Looking at the European Union, according to the latest gathered information, there are more than 80 lithium projects, of which 25% are more advanced.
“Available public information on the most advanced projects in the EU reveals a total resource of 40 million tons equivalent to lithium carbonate and a production capacity of 180,000 tons per year. If these projects become operational, they could cover more than 50% of the EU’s demand by 2030,” stated the European Commission in response to questions from N1.
None of these projects are operational, and the one closest to realization was the Baroso project in Portugal. The start of exploitation has been postponed multiple times, and recently, in November, the chief of staff to the prime minister was arrested for corruption related to the lithium mining project.
Due to corruption related to the mine, the Portuguese prime minister resigned in November of last year. The chief of staff, the mayor of the city of Sines, and two businessmen, one of whom was a close friend of the president of the former government of Portugal, were arrested. Local media expect that the current and former ministers of the environment and infrastructure will also be on trial.
Despite suspending all activities of Rio Tinto on the Jadar project, authorities in Serbia, led primarily by the President of Serbia, are lobbying for the opening of the mine. This intensified after the elections in December 2023.
Judging by the activities, the most prominent advocate is the President of Serbia, who, regardless of the absence of an environmental impact study, believes that a salary for a few hundred people from the Loznica region of 1,000 euros is more valuable than health and life.
The public has remembered and never clarified President Vučić’s statement that “we do not have the right to destroy the lives of a larger number of people than initially planned.”
Dragana Đorđević highlights another paradox, which is that lithium is extracted to reduce pollution originating from fossil fuels, i.e., to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but in the Jadar project itself, there will be a significant increase in the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
“The extraction method announced in Germany seems like the cleanest solution. What is being offered to us is not a solution for climate change and energy transition because it does not bring the desired outcome but, on the contrary, results in much greater and more lasting poisoning. Instead, it seems that the goal is for one company, which has no experience with lithium, to increase its profit at any cost,” notes Dragana Đorđević.
