Environment Energy Mining Watch SEE|News|Lithium reserves in Serbia

Lithium reserves in Serbia

, News

At the moment, lithium is one of the most sought after raw materials in the world. Some call it the “gold of the 21st century”, primarily because of its reputation for growth in the electrical industry, and many also use metal, the exploitation of which is very complicated, writes “Blic”.

The countries that are currently leading in the exploitation of lithium are Australia, Chile, Argentina, China, Zimbabwe, Portugal and Brazil, and the largest reserves of lithium in Europe, according to previous estimates, are located in Serbia. Thus, this alkali metal could easily become “Serbian oil”, because 10% of its world reserves are located on the territory of our country.

Mobile phones and electric cars operate with lithium batteries, and since giants like Tesla, Google and Apple are planning significant investments in the electric vehicle sector, this could lead to further growth in demand. Bloomberg recently estimated that by 2030, the consumption of lithium batteries will increase eightfold.

Near Loznica, there is one of the world’s largest deposits of jadarite, from which lithium is extracted, and the reserves of ore in the Adriatic basin, in Western Serbia, are estimated at 136 million tons. The stock of raw materials was discovered in 2004, and in the same place, in addition to lithium, there are also large quantities of borate. Experts state that the deposit of jadarite ore is located in another 20 locations throughout Serbia, which extend all the way to Zajecar, and that the results of the initial research are even more impressive in those places. According to the available information, Serbia has 10% of the world’s lithium at its disposal, and that is a huge wealth and a great potential that has not been used yet.

At the beginning of this year, the company “Rio Tinto” as they mentioned from Nemanjina 11, with the story that the intention is to move their development center here, which is currently in Australia, as well as to have all scientific and research activities and all laboratory tests in Serbia. The second step would be to locate a third important partner in the whole story, and that is the partner who will use that lithium to develop batteries or electric cars here. In March, the Government of Serbia determined the Spatial Plan of the area for exploitation and processing of jadarite minerals – “Jadar”. This document is the planning basis for the development of the mine, the industrial plant and the necessary infrastructure, as well as for the protection, use and arrangement of the “Jadar” special purpose area. The area of ​​the spatial plan is 293.9 square kilometers on the territory of Loznica and Krupanj, and the Jadarite deposit itself is located in the river valley on agricultural land. The mineral is at a depth of 100 to 720 meters. According to this document, the zone of mining activities will cover 854.8 hectares, the zone of production and industrial activities will cover an area of ​​646.5 hectares, while the zone of 358.5 hectares will be used for the disposal of industrial waste, construction of access roads and supporting infrastructure.

Source: b92.net

 

 

 

Download PDF

LATEST NEWS

error: Content is protected !!