The Jadar lithium mining project in Serbia: imperatives mean complex decision-making

This article examines the decision by the Serbian government to approve the highly controversial Jadar project to mine lithium at a site in the western part of Serbia. Lithium is a critical raw material with a variety of applications including, most strategically, in terms of its role in the batteries that power electric mobility. While it is not particularly rare, known global reserves of this critical raw material are heavily concentrated in a small number of places very few of which are in Europe. Consequently, there is sizable political pressure to develop an industry, where reserves can be found, within Europe. The authors – editors of the SEER Journal – consider why Europe needs to develop a lithium industry as well as some of the environmental considerations surrounding lithium mining, these being sizable enough for protesters to have played a significant role in halting the Jadar project in 2022. They conclude by locating the decision to reopen the project in the context of Serbia’s European integration and point to some of the implications for Serbia’s relations both with the EU and with its neighbours.