A project that will propel us among world leaders: Lithium mining plan presented

Foto: Nikola Tomić

The spatial plan for the special purpose area for the realization of the project of exploitation and processing of the jadarite mineral has been made available for early public insight, which will last until the end of the year.

As stated in the document, the initiative for the development of the spatial plan was submitted to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure in December 2016 by Rio Sava Exploration d.o.o. Belgrade - a company operating within the global mining corporation Rio Tinto.

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The beginning of the development of the spatial plan was preceded by several years of exploration of the jadarite mineral (sodium lithium borosilicate), discovered by geologists of the Rio Sava Exploration in the Jadar River basin, after which this unique mineral was named - states the documentation.

The spatial plan covers an area of ​​293.91 square kilometers and a total of 22 cadastral municipalities in the territory of the City of Loznica (settlements Runjani, Lipnica, Bradic, Brnjac, Veliko Selo, Jarebice, Draginac, Simino Brdo, Cikote, Surice, Stupnica, Slatina, Korenita, Gornje Nedeljice, Donje Nedeljice, Grncara and Sor) and of the municipality of Krupanj (settlements Kostajnik, Dvorska, Brezovice, Krasava and Cerova).

Photo: mgsi.gov.rs

The Jadar deposits where the previously unknown mineral jadarite was discovered at the end of 2004 lies in the central part of the scope of the spatial plan, and so far it is the only place where this mineral has been found. It is new to science and represents a concentration of lithium and boron. Based on the annual report for 2017 of the global mining corporation Rio Tinto, the jadarite deposit esitimate has been carried out only for the Lower Jadarite Zone, to a total of 136 million tons. In addition to the start of exploitation of jadarite, it is expected that production of antimony will be restored, as well as exploitation of the lead-zinc ore, all within the area covered by the spatial plan.

Estimates are that the Jadar project will employ 700 people (up to 400 in the mine, ​​about 100 on the surface, and about 200 maintenance workers), and involves changing the purpose of the regime of the use of space, construction of facilities, roads and infrastructure, conducting mining activities, processing ore, production, deposit of materials and establishment of protection measures in ​​the total area of ​​approximately 2030.64 hectares.

Photo: mgsi.gov.rs

The project implementation area is divided into several zones, for example, in the Mining Activities Zone, two vertical shafts will be constructed for access to the mine body for ventilation of the mine and for transportation of ore and mining waste to the surface. Two mine excavation techniques will be applied at the mine: conventional drilling and blasting and continuous machine excavation.

The plan is to build, within the first subzone, a landfill that will contain approximately 5.2 million cubic meters of waste.

Further, the concept of development of the scope of the plan involves construction of a new Ruma-Sabac-Loznica road, as well as construction of a new section of the Valjevo-Loznica stretch in the length of about 13.75 kilometers. Projections indicate the generation of approximately 600 incoming and about 1,400 outgoing trucks on a weekly basis, mostly dump trucks.

The railway infrastructure envisaged by the project will include reconstruction of the existing regional railway Ruma-Sabac- Rasputnica Donja Borina-state border-(Zvornik Novi) and construction of a new railway line Valjevo-Loznica, which will be relocated in one part. The plan is also to build more bridges across the newly constructed regulated riverbeds, which will intersect with the relocated section of the railroad.

The plan envisages construction of the missing water and hydrotechnical infrastructure - reservoirs in the planned locations and reconstruction and modernization of the network and facilities. You can see the whole project HERE.

We were in the villages where lithium was discovered - take a look at what we found there in our video:

(Telegraf Biznis)