All parties should value – or there will be no mine
Who brought Rio Tinto to Serbia? Rio Tinto came to Serbia attracted by the mineral potential of our country. I participated directly in that, the story is interesting but too long for this text.
Rio Sava will turn twenty in May. The company started operating in a 12 m2 office in New Belgrade with one employee. It now has 140 employees.
I have always said that the Rio Sava will either go big or be gone. They laughed at me. And that was neither funny nor fanatical, but logical. When you look for gold in Alaska, you’ll either find it or you won’t, and you’ll quit. Such is the nature of mineral exploration. It is irrational for them to last too long. They are exciting and fun, but only until discovery is made. Then they are too serious.
Progress pioneer, whose success has encouraged others
What makes geological exploration successful? Is it a team made up of ingenious scientists, money, good organization, superior technology, luck? All of that played a role in finding the “Jadar” deposit.
And there is more. For example, “first mover advantage”. Be the first in an area. Rio Sava was a pioneer of commercial geological exploration in Serbia. Our presence and our success have incentivized and encouraged many other mining companies to come to Serbia. Everyone used Rio Tinto as an example. Looking at all those competitors, some dear to me personally, I always thought of the Chinese saying, “let a thousand flowers bloom”.
“What is important to realize is that we too take our obligations to the environment seriously. Rio Sava have the same task: if we find fatal flaws, the project cannot go further”
Then there are the laws. Without a legal link between exploration and the right to exploit, no one would invest in geological exploration. The purpose of the exploration is not to satisfy scientific ambitions, but to find new mineral deposits and open mines that will in turn contribute to human progress.
When we first started out, we were looking for borates. Rio Tinto is one of the two globally significant borate producers. Jadarite, which is a borate mineral also contains lithium. And lithium was not what we set out to find. But we did find it. And coupled with Borates, we decided to progress with the project.
We are now focused on completing the feasibility stage of the project. At the same time, we are collaborating with leading Serbian and international experts in mining, processing, engineering and design, communities and the environment to deepen our understanding of the project. And working through the permitting process. At the end of this study phase, an approval decision will need to be made.
The future mine will be safe for people and the environment, or there will be no mine
We appreciate that there are opponents of the Jadar project and we respect this. What is important to realize is that we too take our obligations to the environment seriously. Rio Sava have the same task: if we find fatal flaws, the project cannot go further.
The future mine will either be safe for people and the environment, or there will be no mine.
“This is the Serbia in which our children should live. Super-modern, yet conservative, full of knowledge, emancipated, busy, smiling, militarily capable, well-intended, attractive”
This should also be said: exploitation of mineral resources must be profitable. The ore body can only be mined once. It is senseless to mine ore without creating new value, including value for our communities.
All parties should value. Mining risk for the investor also needs to be understood. In addition to all imaginable technical, political, environmental risks, there is also the ordinary, economic one. What if the prices is significantly lower, or significantly higher than planned?
The most important value of the “Jadar” project is knowledge and innovation
In 1970, historian Danica Milić published the paper “Foreign Capital in Serbian Mining until 1918.” In a study published in socialist Yugoslavia, she analyzed the impact of foreign capital invested in copper and coal mines in the Kingdom of Serbia. She described foreign capital as necessary for the greater good. Historian Milić considered the Serbian experience gained in foreign investment in Serbia to be very valuable. Most important, she argues, is the access to European technology and the knowledge which otherwise would not have been gained.
For me, that is the best value of the Jadar Project. Money is, of course, important, but the opportunity for our engineers and technicians to work with the most modern technologies, to cooperate with domestic and foreign universities and scientific and technical centers, is even more important.
We have all the key resources. First of all, we have smart kids and good teachers. We also have lithium, boron, copper, nickel. So why shouldn’t we be the country where electro-mobility and other best technologies of this century are being created? We can do it.
This is the Serbia in which our children should live. Super-modern, yet conservative, full of knowledge, emancipated, busy, smiling, militarily capable, well-intended, attractive.
About the author
I am Nenad Grubin, B.Sc. geology, a proud member of the Serbian Geological Society and the European Federation of Geologists. Also, I was the first director of Rio Sava Exploration in the first 11 years of the company’s operation. I am one of the four geologists who discovered the Jadar deposit. Before Rio Tinto, I worked as an assistant at the Faculty of Mining and Geology, University of Belgrade.
20 years
Rio Sava will turn twenty in May. The company started operating in a 12 m2 office in New Belgrade with one employee. It now has 140 employees.