Brnabic: No contract with Rio Tinto, it has exploration rights for Jadar project

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday the government of Serbia had no contract with Rio Tinto on the Jadar lithium mining project but that the mining company had had exploration rights for the project since 2004 but had still not applied for exploitation rights.

"They conducted exploration based on those exploration rights. By 2012, the exploration rights were confirmed nine times and the scope of exploration was expanded each time. In the meantime, in 2006, a law was amended to say that only those who have exploration rights can apply for exploitation rights, which was reconfirmed in 2011," Brnabic told K1 TV.

There is no contract whatsoever and, in any case, the company's operations will have to comply with Serbian laws, Brnabic said.

She noted that she believed the issue of lithium mining was extremely important because Serbia had a development opportunity that must not be missed.