Although Rio Tinto (RT) announced in August 2021 that a pilot plant for the chemical treatment of jadarite with sulfuric acid would be shipped to Serbia within a few weeks, this did not happen, and judging by the company’s stance, it will not happen.
As a reason, this foreign company stated in response to N1 that they had “abandoned that decision due to a huge campaign of disinformation and intimidation of the public.”
As evidence, Rio Tinto provided a link to an open letter to the President of Serbia from the organization “Ne damo Jadar” and a column on the Nova.rs website.
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Who wants to see the plant can come to Australia?
As Rio Tinto reported, the pilot plant is located at the Bundora Technology and Development Center near Melbourne, Australia. They claim that domestic and international experts worked on the pilot plant.
“All tests of processing jadarite ore were carried out in accordance with all safety standards. Three campaigns of chemical testing were carried out, which were conducted 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During the testing, we collaborated with 40 top international suppliers and tested 5,000 pieces of equipment, and five independent audits confirmed that the processing process is stable, safe, and successful,” reads Rio Tinto’s response.
The company, in its response, did not provide data to confirm the claims. This is the second, chemical phase of the process of obtaining lithium carbonate. The first phase is mining, and the third is disposal, or tailings.
“If any part of the expert community is interested in learning about how the technology that would be applied within the Jadar project was tested in the pilot plant, the company is ready to respond positively to such interest,” the company says without specifying how they intend to do so.
“We couldn’t find out anything” Professor of the Faculty of Chemistry, Branimir Jovačićević, told N1 that “we couldn’t find out anything about the plant itself” from Rio Tinto’s response. “First of all, we are not even able to see it. Of course, whoever intends to work on a project will present it in the best possible light,” he says.
He emphasizes that, given the tensions created and the situation we have regarding this project, it would have to be in the Republic of Serbia and presented to experts – geologists, geochemists, technologists, chemists, and environmental chemistry experts.
“They need to look at all the phases to see which are the critical points for a chemical accident. The process itself through the pilot plant can be carried out flawlessly. The question is to assess at which stage of the chemical-technological process an accident can occur,” Jovačićević explains and continues:
“They don’t talk about the possibility of a chemical accident. Everything is theoretically harmless on paper. But, in life, it’s different.”
The professor states that the process consists of a laboratory level, the second level is a pilot plant, and the third is the actual process in the field.
“With this order, the risk of a chemical accident also increases,” explains the N1 interlocutor. “With 70 tons of sulfuric acid per day, the risk increases” In the laboratory, he says, the risk is the smallest and can be carried out in student exercises.
The process is not complicated or dangerous. Then comes the level of the plant, when the risk is somewhat greater, but the question is whether a significant chemical accident can occur there, and then the natural, real conditions come.
“If we were to work with ton quantities, as planned, 70 tons of sulfuric acid per day, the possibility of a chemical accident is expected to be the greatest. Everything can be technologically implemented – theoretically to be flawless. In practice, in nature, there is an institution of a chemical accident within one of the three phases,” he adds.
Speaking about the process itself, Jovančićević says that it consists of three phases. The first is treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid, and then lithium sulfate is obtained. As he states, the pH value decreases to three, and in this medium, boron crystallizes within boric acid and is easily separated.
“Then the pH is increased by adding calcium hydroxide to precipitate other metals such as iron and manganese. In this way, the pH increases to eight, and then with the help of sodium carbonate, lithium carbonate is obtained,” Jovančićević explains the process.
He says he is aware of the different interests of the company and the citizens of Serbia. “I understand the desire to make a profit, but we, the citizens of Serbia, are aware that they want to open such a complex in the most beautiful and most fertile part of Serbia, bordered by the Jadar, Drina, and Sava rivers.
Only someone who has strange understandings, because I don’t know how to call it, can imagine opening a mine in such a place,” emphasizes Jovančićević.
Unanswered questions: Does Rio Tinto trust the Serbian authorities? Rio Tinto did not directly answer the questions of whether the abandonment of the promised pilot plant in Serbia means that the Serbian state would not be able to guarantee safe transportation. The question of how the company intends to carry out the entire project, if this is the case with the pilot plant, also remained unanswered.
There was also no answer to the question about the fear of citizens, given that a large number of people have been protesting in Serbia for years, and at the same time, Rio Tinto remained and bought land while the project was halted. Instead of answering individual questions, the company sent a response stating that the relationship of trust was partly damaged in 2020, due to what they say is a “large number of false news and disinformation about the Project.”
They believe that “malicious false news and unfounded claims are being spread that Rio Tinto and the implementation of the Jadar Project will have destructive, negative impacts on the environment and human health.”
“Rio Tinto employees and those who have remained neutral or have supported the Jadar project have received and continue to receive countless death threats and are continuously exposed to online intimidation and threats, as well as accusations of being traitors to Serbia,” Rio Tinto claims.
“Great distrust of the government and the company is an obstacle” He recalls that other similar mines are in the wilderness. The professor says that he was recently in Spain and that there is a mining belt there on the border with Portugal which, according to the Spaniards, has been “sacrificed.”
“We have thus amputated eastern Serbia with Bor and Majdanpek. Now we should also amputate that western part, the Jadar region. I wonder what Serbia will survive on,” says the interlocutor of the N1 portal. He sees a great distrust of the government or the company as an additional obstacle.
“Whatever they tell us, we will be distrustful. The main culprit is our government, which created such an atmosphere. They conducted negotiations in strict secrecy, then they said it was a done deal. Then, before the elections, they said that there was nothing to it. Then, after the elections, they made a legal trick and brought it back to life. Meetings with Scholz are also frequent. Non-transparency will get them into trouble. They thought they would find salvation in non-transparency, and it will figuratively be a ‘noose around their neck’,” concludes Jovančićević, writes N1.
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Source: Nova, Photo: Reuters/David Gray