"Rio Tinto – Salami slicing in accordance with “the highest European standards of environmental protection" 8 October 2024

"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."

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"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."

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"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."

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