Vladimir Zivojinovic

Environment in Serbia

Serbia is a country that politically juggles between East and West – it’s nominally on EU path but lately has started to court a number of Chinese investors who are interested in outsourcing dirty industries from the Asian giant. Serbia is a convenient partner because its proximity to the EU gives easy access to European market, but also due to the country’s willingness to make deals labelled as state secret, where the investors don’t have to disclose any details on the deal.

Most of those investments have stirred fears for potential environmental impact, because in recent years Chinese investors have taken over Serbia’s steelworks, a number of copper and other mines and started building atyremega factory.

Air pollution in the Balkan country causes large number of premature deaths, and the consequences include shorter life expectancy and public health deterioration. According to European Environment Agency, poor air quality in the region causes more than 30,000 premature deaths, and the EU’s Joint Research Center said that air pollution on average contributes to the reduction of life expectancy between 0.4 and 1.3 years in the countries of the Western Balkans. Coal-fired power plants, which are a dominant source of energy in the region, account for economic damage ranging between €1.2 billion and €3.4 billion per year for healthcare costs, studies have shown. Serbian cities have steadily been in the top ten most polluted cities in Europe, according toIqAir.

I would like to capture the impact heavy industry and pollution have on everyday people’s lives. From the city ofBor, where theZijingcopper mining and smelting complex is linked to a massiveamountof premature deaths, Western Serbia where locals battle the plans of building one of Europe’s biggest lithium mines toZrenjanin, where the Chinese-ownedLinglongcompany is building a factory with planned production of 13 milliontyresannually.

Environment protection was for decades completely neglected by Serbian authorities, but in recent years it has grew into public debate number one.

It has pitted festering distrust in the country's increasingly autocratic government against Europe's plans for a greener future. Many Serbian citizens perceive that the current government is using foreign investment to boost nation’s GDP at the expense of people’s health, and in recent months thousands have protested by blocking roads throughout the Balkan nation.

In 2018 the Chinese company Zijin Mining bought the state-owned mining company in Bor and its mines. And also another mine in a village nearby, Metovnica. Ever since that, production has gone up and locals are now complaining about their land getting expropriated, cracks in their houses because of explosions from the mine, and pollution in general.

Serbia is a country that politically juggles between East and West – it’s nominally on EU path but lately has started to court a number of Chinese investors who are interested in outsourcing dirty industries from the Asian giant. Serbia is a convenient partner because its proximity to the EU gives easy access to European market, but also due to the country’s willingness to make deals labelled as state secret, where the investors don’t have to disclose any details on the deal.
Most of those investments have stirred fears for potential environmental impact, because in recent years Chinese investors have taken over Serbia’s steelworks, a number of copper and other mines and started building a tyremega factory.

Next year, as they said, is crucial for the company since it is planned that the maximum production of 72 million tons of excavations and 23.3 million tons of ore will be reached in Veliki Krivelje, which should be increased to 60,000 tons by processing in the new and old flotation. copper in concentrate.

Serbia is a country that politically juggles between East and West – it’s nominally on EU path but lately has started to court a number of Chinese investors who are interested in outsourcing dirty industries from the Asian giant. Serbia is a convenient partner because its proximity to the EU gives easy access to European market, but also due to the country’s willingness to make deals labelled as state secret, where the investors don’t have to disclose any details on the deal.

Most of those investments have stirred fears for potential environmental impact, because in recent years Chinese investors have taken over Serbia’s steelworks, a number of copper and other mines and started building atyremega factory.

Air pollution in the Balkan country causes large number of premature deaths, and the consequences include shorter life expectancy and public health deterioration. According to European Environment Agency, poor air quality in the region causes more than 30,000 premature deaths, and the EU’s Joint Research Center said that air pollution on average contributes to the reduction of life expectancy between 0.4 and 1.3 years in the countries of the Western Balkans. Coal-fired power plants, which are a dominant source of energy in the region, account for economic damage ranging between €1.2 billion and €3.4 billion per year for healthcare costs, studies have shown. Serbian cities have steadily been in the top ten most polluted cities in Europe, according toIqAir.

I would like to capture the impact heavy industry and pollution have on everyday people’s lives. From the city ofBor, where theZijingcopper mining and smelting complex is linked to a massiveamountof premature deaths, Western Serbia where locals battle the plans of building one of Europe’s biggest lithium mines toZrenjanin, where the Chinese-ownedLinglongcompany is building a factory with planned production of 13 milliontyresannually.

Environment protection was for decades completely neglected by Serbian authorities, but in recent years it has grew into public debate number one.

It has pitted festering distrust in the country's increasingly autocratic government against Europe's plans for a greener future. Many Serbian citizens perceive that the current government is using foreign investment to boost nation’s GDP at the expense of people’s health, and in recent months thousands have protested by blocking roads throughout the Balkan nation.

Jadar River in western Serbia. The proposed site for the Europe’s biggest lithium mine is on the bank of the Korenita River, a tributary of the Jadar.


The "Jadar" project, which, according to estimates, will employ 700 people (up to 400 in the mine, about 100 on the surface and about 200 maintenance workers), involves a change in the use of the space, the construction of buildings, roads and infrastructure, the implementation of mining activities, ore processing , production, deposit- ing of materials and establishment of protection measures in the area of the total area of about 2030.64 ha.

Marijana Petkovic reviews the documentation regarding Rio Tinto, in her home in the village Gornje Nedeljice, October 13, 2021.
Rio Tinto Group is developing the Jadar project near Loznica within which it intends to open an underground mine to exploit jadarite, from which lithium, a mineral used to produce batteries, will be extracted. Lithium is crucial for the transition to renewables, but mining it is environmentally costly, experts warn

Dragana Đorđević, a scientific advisor from the Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, who conducted this research, warns that Rio Tinto has more than 500 wells and that about 30 of them are "known to be leaking". As he explains, toxic mine water leaks from them.

- This is the water that is in the surroundings, ore rocks down 300-700 meters, because as they were drilling some wells that were not well secured, they started to leak that water. This water comes out under pressure from below to the surface of the earth and with rainfall it is washed and flows into the Jadar river. This is what comes from the surface, and who knows through which channels it reached the underground water, and underground and river water are connected - explained Đorđević.

Members of the association that fights against the construction of the mine and the residents of the village of Gornje Nedeljice have a meeting, October 13, 2021.

Beekeeper Vladan Jakovljevic, 60, from Stupinica, 2km from the mining zone, whose 400 hives produced three tonnes of acacia honey last year, said the area where his bees feed would be left “desolate.”

Ratko Ristic, a forestry professor has lobbied with others from the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts against the Jadar mine, claiming “the possible benefits for the state of Serbia is between €7m to €30m a year, the possible income from advanced agricultural activity in the same area would be more than €80m a year without pollution or relocation”

The mine will involve the relocation of 81 households, voluntary or otherwise, and the purchase of fields of 293 landowners. A brochure circulated among those affected stated that expropriation of homes and land would be a “last resort”.

About 30 homes have been bought in Petkovic’s village. Knowing their properties are destined to be destroyed, the owners rip out windows, doors and even roofs, leaving desolate scenes for those who have resisted Rio Tinto’s money or are yet to be offered anything. “Our neighbours did it so we had to,” said Živana Šakic, 67, who recently sold up 


Picture taken on January 8, 2021, shows trash accumulated at the Potpecko hydro-power dams, part of the Lim river near the city of Priboj. The Western Balkans are home to some of Europe's wildest rivers and most pristine tracts of nature. But failing waste management systems across the region are threatening the environment and public health. Heavy rains in January highlighted the problem after floods swept garbage from roadsides and other illegal dumps into rivers.

In 2018 the Chinese company Zijin Mining bought the state-owned mining company in Bor and its mines. And also another mine in a village nearby, Metovnica. Ever since that, production has gone up and locals are now complaining about their land getting expropriated, cracks in their houses because of explosions from the mine, and pollution in general.

Serbia is a country that politically juggles between East and West – it’s nominally on EU path but lately has started to court a number of Chinese investors who are interested in outsourcing dirty industries from the Asian giant. Serbia is a convenient partner because its proximity to the EU gives easy access to European market, but also due to the country’s willingness to make deals labelled as state secret, where the investors don’t have to disclose any details on the deal.
Most of those investments have stirred fears for potential environmental impact, because in recent years Chinese investors have taken over Serbia’s steelworks, a number of copper and other mines and started building a tyremega factory.

The ‘Jama’ mine is the closest to the city centre of Bor, where it should be possible to get it from an angle where you can get both the city and the enormous mine in a picture.

In Serbia, mineral raw materials are being explored at 200 locations. Namely, Serbia has an abundance of metal and other ores, as many as 50 types of ore. The most common are copper, gold, lead, zinc, iron, chromi- um, manganese, molybdenum, cobalt, cadmium and antimony.

The most important is Bor, where, according to the estimate of a Canadian company, there are about 15 million tons of copper and 370 tons of gold. The value of this location is estimated at around 100 billion dollars.

The Chinese mining giant Ziđin in Bor operates the largest copper mine and smelter in Serbia. He sold 5.74 tons of gold to the National Bank of Serbia in the last three and a half years. The entire amount of pure gold that is produced must first be offered to the National Bank of Serbia. Only if she refuses to buy that gold at the market price can it be exported and sold on the market. Ziđin states that this has not happened so far and that all the mined gold has remained in Serbia.

Gold is also found near Žagubica, Blagojev Kamen and in the beds of Pek and Timok. One of the gold mines is located on Mount Radan, Lece. The Lece mine in Medveđa is a lead and zinc mine, but it characteristically has high concentrations of gold and silver in its products.

The Bor river, which is the drainage channel of Bor sewage and heavy metals from the Bor Mining and Smelting Basin. Downstream from Bor, it joins the Krivajska river and the Ravna river to form the Bela river, which flows into the Veliki Timok near the village of Vražogrnac and further into the artificial reservoir for the HPP "Sokolica". There is no life beside the Bor River. It is dark yellow and has a heavy smell. There are no birds or insects above the river.

Portrait of Zoran Vojinovic and his wife, In the story, we visit Vojinović in his small house, just near the ‘Veliki Krivelj’ mine just outside of Bor, approx. 20 minutes from the city centre of Bor and 5-10 minutes from Miloš Savić’ home, he also lives right by the mining pit where there is an open green landscape just near his house.
In 2018 the Chinese company Zijin Mining bought the state-owned mining company in Bor and its mines. And also another mine in a village nearby, Metovnica. Ever since that, production has gone up and locals are now complaining about their land getting expropriated, cracks in their houses because of explosions from the mine, and pollution in general.

The ‘Jama’ mine is the closest to the city centre of Bor, where it should be possible to get it from an angle where you can get both the city and the enormous mine in a picture.

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