Rio Tinto included only part of the “Jadar” project in the request to determine the scope and content of the environmental impact assessment study, thus trying to present the potential environmental impacts as smaller than they actually are. Announcements that the project will be implemented according to the “highest European standards of environmental protection” have thus been denied in practice at the very beginning by the company and the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Acting on the request of the company Rio Tinto, on September 17th, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced a public insight of the Request for determining the scope and content of the environmental impact assessment study for the project of underground exploitation of lithium and boron deposits “Jadar”. This request is the first step in the environmental impact assessment procedure, whereas the decision on determining the scope and content stands as the document that Rio Tinto lacks in order to obtain approval for the mine site.
However, the request was not prepared in accordance with the regulations in the field of environmental impact assessment and contains numerous deficiencies, which is why RERI believes that the conditions for the public insight were not met, but the request should have been returned to Rio Tinto for amendment.
The most important irregularity is the fact that Rio Tinto used the salami slicing method of artificially splitting the project into smaller units to avoid conducting an environmental impact assessment for the entire project. “Rio Tinto submitted a request in which it stated that the project refers only to the exploitation of lithium ore and boron from an underground mine, which is not an independent project, but only part of the “Jadar” project that Rio Tinto plans to implement at the location in question,” explains Mirko Popović, Programme Director of RERI.
Thus, the impact of ore processing on the environment is not presented in the request. As there was no description of ore processing, it is not known what types of reagents will be used, and it is therefore not known what types of waste and wastewater will be generated, nor how they will be treated. It is not known how the mine will be supplied with water from the alluvium of the Drina River. There was also no description of the deposition of sludge from the production of lithium carbonate, boric acid and sodium sulfate, which potentially has significant negative effects on the environment. Consequently, the impact of these projects and activities on the environment was not presented.
Popović explains that there are numerous benefits for investors if they separate the project, among which are the reduction of investment costs and the accelerated acquisition of construction and mining permits. “If the negative impacts on the environment are not comprehensively assessed, the measures prescribed by the study will not be adequate either, and therefore the investor has lower investment costs in environmental protection, health protection and the quality of life of the local population,” he adds.
By separating the project, Rio Tinto acted contrary to the Conditions of the Environmental Protection Institute of Serbia, which stipulate that “the type of work obliges the company to initiate the decision-making process on the need to prepare an environmental impact assessment study, as well as to prepare an environmental impact assessment study for the main mining project that will include all stages of exploitation and processing of jadarite ore”.
“The probability that the competent authorities will decide in the next impact assessment procedure for the second part of the mine that the project cannot be implemented, or at least not in those capacities, is significantly reduced, which gives the investor the opportunity to start the implementation of the project even though the overall environmental impacts have not been assessed”, points out Jovan Rajić, founder of RERI.
Announcements that the project will be implemented according to the “highest European standards of environmental protection” were hereby denied at the very beginning. “What is particularly worrying and calls into question the intentions of Rio Tinto is the fact that the company “rushed” to submit a request under the current Law on Environmental Impact Assessment, even though the proposal of a new Law that ensures a higher level of responsibility of the project holder and explicitly prohibits the separation of the project, and gives more space to the public in the decision-making process, was sent to the National Assembly and its adoption is expected in the coming days”, adds Rajić. If the company really wanted to conduct the procedure according to higher standards of environmental protection, it would have waited for the adoption of the new Law on Environmental Impact Assessment.
Separation of the project represents only one of the shortcomings of the request in question. The opinion and comments submitted by RERI to the Ministry of Environmental Protection are hereby published in full.
RERI reminds that due to the worrying state of the rule of law in Serbia, the Jadar project cannot be implemented without jeopardizing human rights and endangering the environment, which is confirmed by the irregularities observed in the environmental impact assessment procedure, as well as the repression of citizens, environmental activists and civil society organizations, that legally expressed their disagreement with the project.
Clarifications:
Salami slicing is a well-known phenomenon in practice and theory, which means that by dividing the project into parts, the investor tries to show the potential negative impacts of the project they are implementing on the environment as smaller than they really are. More about salami slicing and the reasons why investors resort to this illegal practice is available in the publication “Implementation of the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment in the Republic of Serbia – twenty lost years”.
The approval for the exploitation field is one of the basic documents on the basis of which the exploitation of mineral reserves is carried out. The holder of the approval for the exploitation field has the right to obtain approval for the construction of mining facilities and/or the performance of mining operations. Along with the request for the issuance of the exploitation field, the applicant is obliged to submit a feasibility study. Before preparing the feasibility study, the applicant is required to obtain an act prescribing the scope and content of the environmental impact assessment study issued by the competent authority.
The procedure for determining the scope and content of the study is a mandatory phase of the environmental impact assessment procedure that precedes the preparation of the study and whose main goal is to determine the scope of the study (including appropriate time and space limits) and identify important issues that should be considered in more detail in the study due to the negative impact on the environment and population.