BELGRADE (Reuters) – A whole lot of individuals in Serbia braved sleet and chilly climate to dam roads throughout the nation for the third straight weekend on Saturday to protest authorities plans to permit Rio Tinto (NYSE:)’s open a lithium mine.

To bolster financial development, Serbia’s authorities has supplied mineral sources to overseas buyers together with China’s Zijin miner and Rio Tinto.

Inexperienced activists say the mining initiatives will pollute land and water within the Balkan nation which is already closely scarred by industrial air pollution.

The protests have change into a headache for the ruling coalition forward of April 3 common elections.

After the primary weeks of protests, conservative President Aleksandar Vucic despatched an expropriation regulation, contested by inexperienced teams, which allowed swift acquisition of property by the state, again to parliament for remodeling.

On Friday, parliament additionally launched amendments to a referendum regulation, together with the removing of a requirement for funds of charges by civic teams to launch referendum initiatives.

Critics stated the 2 legal guidelines have been have been pushed by means of to ease development of the mine.

However that doesn’t go far sufficient, stated Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta, head of the Ecological Rebellion civic organisation.

“There can be no respite till Rio Tinto is expelled from Serbia and till lithium mining … is banned completely,” he instructed reporters.

Protesters introduced visitors to a standstill alongside a freeway within the Novi Beograd neighbourhood and scuffled with a driver who tried to plough his approach by means of.

“We (should) defend ourselves from these loopy initiatives that are envisioning development of tens of mines in Serbia,” stated Irena Radovanovic, a pupil from Belgrade.

Lithium is in massive world demand as an important ingredient in batteries for electrical vehicles, whereas one other anticipated mining product, borates, is utilized in photo voltaic panels and wind generators.

Rio has promised to stick to all home and EU environmental requirements, however environmentalists say the deliberate $2.4 billion mine in Serbia would irreversibly pollute ingesting water within the space.