March 12 (SeeNews) - Serbia hopes to account for 10% of global lithium output after Australian mining company Rio Tinto starts production at the Jadar lithium-borate project in the country, energy minister Aleksandar Antic said.
"Jadar, a world-class lithium site developed by Rio Tinto, is a significant project, thanks to which Serbia could account for 10% of the total production of lithium in the world in a few years," Antic said last week, as quoted in a statement by the Serbian energy ministry.
The mining group discovered the lithium borate deposit in the valley of the Jadar river, near the Serbian town of Loznica, in 2004 and plans to start production in 2023.
Jadar is a very large resource and it has the potential to underpin a business for 50 to 100 years, Stephen McIntosh, head of growth and innovation at Rio Tinto, said last week, as quoted by The Australian daily on Monday. It has the sort of size and scale of potential that is of interest to Rio Tinto, he added.
Under current plans, Jadar will be an underground mine, with the opportunity for future expansion if demand warrants it, The Australian added.
In February, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said in a video file posted on his YouTube channel that Rio Tinto is in talks with Chinese companies to cooperate in the production of lithium.
"We will try to find an investor to keep that lithium in Serbia, to make a factory for electric vehicles in Serbia," he added.
Rio Tinto has been active in Serbia since 2001 through its local subsidiary Rio Sava Exploration. The company has also established a subsidiary for the execution of geological surveys in Serbia and the region, Rio Tinto Explorations Dunav.
The Jadar lithium borate discovery in Serbia is estimated at 135.7 million tonnes with a weighted average concentration of 1.86% of lithium oxide, representing one of the largest lithium deposits in the world.