German Chancellor to visit Serbia for key talks on raw materials

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared he will visit Serbia this Friday and will meet President Aleksandar Vucic, a primary subject being the critical raw materials. This covers participation in a fateful primary conference on CRM in addition to the European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. It is planned for Serbia during the summit to sign a memorandum with the European Union on the further development of a strategic partnership on sustainable non-energy goods and minerals, battery materials, and electric vehicles.

Discussions will be held on furthering a progressive project for the efficient mining of lithium in Serbia in continuation of establishment of a new European raw material strategy regarding risks involving sources. Specifically, the spokesperson underlined the importance of the visit in regard to the elaboration of the strategy on raw materials in Europe.

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The visit comes after the Serbian government recently approved a license for Rio Tinto to undertake what is Europe’s largest lithium deposit. The USD 2.4 billion Jadar project with inferred resources of more than 4 billion tons is located in western Serbia, and it will make Rio Tinto lithium-sulphate producer that will fulfil 90% of the current lithium demand in Europe.

Nonetheless, the project has been severely criticised by Serbian opposition political parties as well as environmental organisations due to the environmental problems that the project will cause.