Brnabic: There is no contract with Rio Tinto, they have exploration rights for Jadar

Photo: Tanjug/Vladimir Sporcic

President of the Serbian National Assembly Ana Brnabic said today that the state does not have a contract with the mining company Rio Tinto for the Jadar project, but that they have exploration rights for it, which they received in 2004, and that they have not yet applied for exploitation.

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"Based on those exploration rights, they conducted surveys. By 2012, they had their exploration rights confirmed nine times, and each of those nine times the scope was expanded. In the meantime, in 2006, and then that was additionally confirmed in 2011, the law changed, which states that only those who have exploration rights can apply to obtain exploitation rights," Brnabic told TV K1.

This is how she responded when asked whether Serbia has such a contract with Rio Tinto, which would be possible to terminate if the company does not comply with all the regulations of the state of Serbia, and explained that there is no such contract now, and that the company must certainly work according to the laws of the state.

Brnabic added that what while she served as prime minister in 2017 she changed a memorandum of understanding signed with Rio Tinto because it was important for her to establish two important things.

"That we have it on paper, through some agreement on cooperation and understanding, that there are, number one, the world's highest standards for environmental protection and two, that everything that can stay in Serbia, stays in Serbia. Therefore, that we do not export ore, that we do not export raw materials and that everything that can be done in terms of research, anything that can be done in Serbia, should not be done in Australia, in America, but should be done in Serbia in order to brought additional revenue to our country," said Brnabic.

(Telegraf Biznis/Tanjug)