Vucic: Lithium mining project to enable Serbia's quantum leap to future

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday lithium production in Serbia would enable the country to take a quantum leap to the future and that it should be a dependable partner to Europe, Germany and the whole world in the overall lithium production chain, where full environmental protection would be ensured.

At a plenary session of a Summit on Critical Raw Materials, also attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, Vucic said work on this with people from Scholz's cabinet had taken a long time and that Serbia had made major demands.

He said lithium mining would bring "billions and billions worth of investments" and a step forward for the entire country, mostly Loznica and the Jadar region in western Serbia.

He said full environmental protection was the first of three key points in implementation of lithium production.

"The greatest experts who know how that is done will be there, too. There will be no project without full protection - and there will be a project because we are bringing in the best people from Europe and the world to ensure that," Vucic said.

Serbia's economic prosperity is the second point, he said, adding that he was referring not only to ore but to all the factories that would mean "billions worth of investments" in the country.

"Directly and indirectly, they will create jobs for tens of thousands of people. Salaries in Macva and Podrinje are much lower than in Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica and Belgrade. This will be an opportunity to change those things. But this will also be an opportunity for development of entire Serbia, which is what we have insisted on. I would like to thank Chancellor Scholz for saying the German government will help that and, from the very beginning, we have had that kind of promise from the European Commission and I am confident we will hear a confirmation of those words today, that we will be working along the entire chain. Once batteries are produced here, I am quite certain that then we can have more electric car manufacturers in addition to the one we already have," he said.

He asked for EU assistance with a cathode factory and a lithium factory.

"We also have the first Serbian lithium battery manufacturer. As a state, we will help investments in that, but we are also asking you to help us with that. I have spoken about it with Maros (Sefcovic) many times and I believe there will be more European companies that will be interested in that. For now, there are two European manufacturers," Vucic said.

He said public support was the third key point, noting that he knew that, just like with all major projects, there would be no broader public support in the beginning.

"I believe that, when they see the commitment with which we are working, people will stand will their government and their country more and more," he said.