Rio Tinto halts Jadar project in Serbia: report

Rio Tinto (NYSE, LSE, ASX: RIO) plans to pause its development of the long-delayed Jadar lithium project in Serbia to cut costs and shift focus elsewhere, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

The Anglo-Australian miner intends to place the nearly $3-billion lithium project into care and maintenance after the government approvals process produced little progress, Bloomberg said. It cited an internal memo that it later confirmed with a company spokesperson.

Rio Tinto didn’t immediately respond to a Northern Mining Group request for comment.

The move essentially ends Rio’s two-decade-long quest to tap into one of the world’s largest lithium resources. The company had estimated that Jadar could produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year, starting as early as 2027. It’s considered a main EU project to develop battery metals supplies and expected to meet a chunk of its lithium demand.

Uncertainty

Since its initial discovery in 2004, the Jadar project has faced numerous regulatory setbacks, political uncertainty and community opposition. Rio’s licence was taken away in January 2022 over environmental concerns, and despite regaining it two and a half years later, the permitting process barely moved.

The decision to sideline the project comes five months after the Australian miner raised its cost estimates for Jadar to $2.95 billion from $2.4 billion. The revision, the mine’s managing director said then, reflects costs to meet “European Union environmental and human rights standards.” 

The decision to halt Jadar marks the latest cost-cutting measure under new CEO Simon Trott, who replaced Jakob Stausholm earlier this year and has pledged to simplify operations and reduce management layers.

Shares in Rio Tinto gained 0.9% to close at A$133.65 apiece on Thursday in Sydney, valuing the company at A$189 billion (US$124 billion).