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said, noting the project's capacity to produce 58,000 tonnes of lithium annually, sufficient for 17% of Europe's electric vehicle production.
The anticipated approval of the Jadar project, projected to become Europe’s largest lithium mine, marks a significant policy shift for Belgrade. The government had previously been forced to U-turn on the project following nationwide protests.
Recent elections in December 2023, won by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), seem to have paved the way for the project's revival. In January 2024, Vucic announced that further discussions with Rio Tinto would go ahead, but emphasised the need for greater public discourse on the project's future.
But despite draft studies indicating the project's safety, it remains highly controversial. Environmentalists and local residents warn of increased pollution in a country already facing severe environmental issues. If the government goes ahead with the project, it risks provoking another public backlash and a return of political instability.
On the other hand, the exploitation of Serbia’s lithium reserves, which constitute 1.3% of the world’s known deposits,
could be highly lucrative. Valued at approximately €4bn, the extraction process would generate significant revenue for the government and create hundreds of jobs over the next decade.
The project would also further Serbia’s EU accession talks. Lithium is deemed essential by the EU for its green transition. With Europe currently lacking domestic lithium production, the project is expected to meet 13% of the continent's projected demand by 2030, according to Fastmarkets research cited by the Financial Times.
In September 2023, Serbia’s government signed a letter
of intent with the European Commission on a strategic partnership in batteries and critical raw materials, including lithium. The involvement of the EU in the renewed agreement is seen by Western officials as a signal of Serbia's geopolitical alignment, especially amid economic and political overtures from China, Russia, and Gulf states.
The official presentation of the project, along with detailed environmental guarantees, is expected in Belgrade next month, where business and political leaders will gather to discuss the future of the Jadar project and its implications for Serbia and Europe.
Russian engineers to switch on Turkey’s
first nuclear plant within a year
bne IntelliNews
The delayed commissioning of the first unit at Turkey’s first nuclear power plant (NPP), built by Russia’s Rosatom, is reportedly expected in April 2025.
Ankara originally sought an Akkuyu NPP launch that would coincide with last October’s celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkey, but the construction of the $20bn facility by the Russian state nuclear corporation fell behind schedule. A successful Akkuyu start-up is important to Rosatom’s marketing of its prowess to an expanding client list – only this week, Uzbekistan signed up for a 330-MW NPP, based on six small modular reactors (SMRs), expected to be Central Asia’s first nuclear power facility.
Anticipating that the first of four units of the plant on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast in Mersin province will go
live just under a year from now, Denis Sezemin, director for construction & organisation of production at project company Akkuyu Nukleer, was on May 29 cited by Nuclear Engineering International as saying that commissioning processes were under way.
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“According to the inter-governmental agreement [between Turkey and Russia], we have seven years [before the start of commercial operation]. We received a construction licence for unit 1 in April 2018, so the date of its commissioning is presumably April 2025,” Sezemin was reported as saying. “At unit 1, most of the main construction and installation
Model of Akkuyu NPP (Credit: Akkuyu Nukleer A.S., VOA, public domain).