100,000 people in the streets: Mass protests escalate against Europe's largest lithium mine

Last week, protests broke out in Serbia against the planned construction of a lithium mine. Mining giant Rio Tinto's project was canceled for 2022 after months of nationwide protests. But now it has been given the green light.

The people fear a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe as a result of the planned lithium mining and protested against the world's second largest mining company in Valjevo on August 19 with slogans such as "You will not dig" and "Rio Tinto, leave Serbia". The first demonstrations took place in Belgrade on August 10 with about 119,000 participants, and several more have taken place throughout the country in recent weeks. Dozens of environmental activists were arrested, homes were searched and death threats were made.

One of the concerns is that the mining of lithium, which is used in batteries for a wide range of electrical devices such as smartphones, laptops, wearables, battery storage for solar panels and home power systems, as well as in electric cars, could contaminate groundwater - and thus affect people's health, according to a Reuters video. This is because several thousand tons of dynamite and sulphuric acid would have to be used every day to extract the lithium from the rock.

Around 800 hectares of forest would have to be cleared, farmland destroyed and hundreds of families resettled for the mine in the Jadar Valley. It would be the largest lithium mine in Europe and one of the leading mines in the world. The $2.4 billion project is expected to cover around 90 percent of Europe's lithium needs.

Rio Tinto, a London-based company with shareholders ranging from China to the British Royal Family, is already known for human rights and environmental abuses, such as the destruction of Aboriginal caves in Australia that contained evidence of human habitation 46,000 years ago. On July 19, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz signed an agreement that will give producers from EU member states access to raw materials from Serbia.