Professors at Faculty of Mining and Geology: Jadar Mine Would Not Jeopardize Living Environment in Major Way, Technological Processing Not within Our Domain

The lithium mine within the Jadar project would not pose a major hazard to the living environment, Cedomir Beljic and Nikola Lilic, professors at the Faculty of Mining and Geology, who worked on the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, agree, but emphasize that the project, in addition to the part which pertains to mining activities, also entails technological processing, about whose effects they did not speak, since it is not within their field of activity.

The experts, who have years of experience with such studies, are convinced that, with the implementation of the highest standards of environmental protection, the impact can be safely managed.

– There is a good basis for a project to be carried out which could be sound, successful and without incidents in terms of ecology and environmental protection. But, let’s be fair, mining does have an impact on the environment, to a lesser or greater extent – say the professors, who talked about the potential impact of the mine on the waters, air, land, agriculture, biodiversity and other things on the “Pola sata Demostata” TV show.

When asked whether, due to the waste, the Jadar mine would be more harmful to the environment than other mines in Serbia, they answer that each site is a unique, non-renewable resource and special. The answer to the question whether the comparisons which are made in the Serbian public often – “if lithium can be mined in Germany, it can be mined in Serbia as well” – make sense is the same.

Impact assessment studies, especially when it comes to complex projects such as Jadar, are done by teams of experts who have the necessary competence and professional responsibility; after the study is published, a public discussion is planned, after which the technical commission of the competent minister proposes to the government to accept it or not.

The professors emphasize that the whole procedure is defined by law and that the public is not excluded, but remind that the work on the Impact Assessment Study was stopped when the project was stopped and that the public was left without the data from it.

– The competent ministry of the Government of Serbia were expected to organize a public discussion and include all the expert and relevant institutions in the country in the fields of mining, engineering, natural sciences, in order to reach conclusions based on a competent debate, which the citizens would not be excluded from either – they say.

The professors say that there has to be a certain dose of skepticism and distrust in the public, but that, for precisely that reason, the ministry should have organized an expert discussion, so that the discussion would not be reduced to who shouts the loudest.

Rudarsko geološki fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu

Faculty of Mining and Geology

Čedomir Beljić

Nikola Lilić

Jadar

lithium

lithium mine

Environmental Impact Assessment Study