Jadar project, lithium, Rio Tinto (Serbia)

The jadarite (lithium-boron) deposit of the Jadar valley is presented as the most credible domestic source to loosen Europe's mineral dependence. Its history illustrates the political fragility of alternative supply: licence revoked in 2022 under pressure from protests, reinstated by the Serbian courts in July 2024, but still hanging on massive social opposition. A strategic asset blocked not by geology but by acceptability.