Representatives of the Let’s Protect Jadar and Rađevina Association have once again (publicly) announced a series of untruths and unfounded accusations related to Rio Sava Exploration d.o.o. (Rio Sava), our parent company Rio Tinto and the Jadar Project (the Project).

We would like to use this opportunity to respond to incorrect and malicious claims that mislead local public and negatively affect the reputation of our Company and dignity of our employees. We respect the right of all parties involved to differ in opinions in relation to the proposed Project as long as the dialogue is based on facts. However, we will always be ready to implement all legal means we have at our disposal to defend the truth and the reputation of our Company when it comes to dealing with incorrect and unfounded accusations made to question the integrity and the legality of our business.

In terms of repeated claims about the alleged examples of breach of law of our Company’s business activities, we underline that Rio Sava company is doing business in line with the laws of the Republic of Serbia based on which every legal entity is entitled to do any business activity, unless legally prescribed that a special license/approval is necessary for a certain business activity (which is not the case with Rio Sava’s registered core business).

The existence of valid licenses referring to the development of the Project are not a precondition for the existence and business activities of a company which refer to its everyday business activities. We once again reiterate that Rio Sava fully adheres to the decision of the Serbian government to revoke the Decree on the Spatial Plan for Special Purpose Area (SPSPA) for the realization of the project of exploration and processing of jadarite mineral “Jadar” but that fact does not exclude, or disables, the existence and everyday business activities of our Company on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

After the legal acts necessary for the implementation of the Project have been revoked, we have informed the public on several occasions that we would continue to fulfil all our commitments towards the community, suppliers and our employees. A large amount of incorrect information has been shared about Rio Tinto and the Project. It is important for the public to know the facts and then develop an informed attitude and opinions based on them.

Furthermore, we believe that the statements in which our Company is presented as a threat to national security of the Republic of Serbia are completely unfounded and random. They are shared with the public without any evidence to support them and with an aim to disturb the public, especially local residents in the region of Loznica.

When it comes to the critiques regarding the alleged lack of transparency in our Company’s operations and the lack of information about the Project, we vehemently deny them, having in mind that since 2019, on the territory of the local community, the Project organised more than 20 meetings, namely a series of Open Days meetings. At these meetings, subject matter experts have presented a wide range of topics of interest in great detail and provided answers to questions. In addition, since 2019, we have held more than 5,800 meetings with the members of the local community. These meetings included one-on-one “consultations, visits to the info centres, consultations about legal issues, consultations with land owners, field visits and conversations with the members of the local community, as well small-scale meetings with different groups within the community to discuss various topics, such as cultural heritage, preservation and unimpeded functioning of the local church, as well as planned field activities. Finally, nation-wide, the Project organized a series of Open Days online sessions to discuss numerous topics related to the Project, including waste management, water management and ore processing method.

All information is also available on the Company’s web page, and in our Company’s info centres in Loznica and Brezjak where you can find collaterals with fact-based answers to the questions related to waste-, water-, air- and land-management and biodiversity.

We are dedicated to open and ongoing cooperation with the local community in order to understand and discuss the reasons for concern, and work on tackling the challenges together. However, such a dialogue is possible only with the parties genuinely interested in talking to us which, unfortunately, is not the case with some local associations, including the Let’s Protect Jadar and Rađevina Association with representatives who, on several occasions, have said that they do not plan to have conversations with our Company. This leads us to conclude that the Association is not really interested in facts and dialogue, only in unfounded attacks.

In addition, representatives of the Association are visibly outspoken in their attempts to establish a correlation between the work our Company is investing in the preparation of internal Feasibility Study and the SPSPA for the realisation of the Project. Again, this is an unfounded claim, having in mind that internal, Company’s studies related to the development of the Project have absolutely nothing to do with the permitting process, including the Spatial Plan. A company’s internal activities are implemented within a company, and the very work on the internal Feasibility Study is not a breach of the Decision of the Republic of Serbia to withdraw the Decision on the SPSPA for the implementation of the project of exploitation and processing of jadarite mineral “Jadar”.

Representatives of the Let’s Protect Jadar and Rađevina Association have shared various incorrect and malicious claims with the public. The Company is attributed the intention to irrevocably harm the local ecosystem, completely neglecting the facts and information based on science and EIA studies the Company shared with the public (additional information is available on our webpage).

Claims are made that the procedure in response to the complaint of Let’s Protect Jadar and Rađevina Association, together with other associations, filed with the Secretariat of the Bern Convention in Strasbourg, is underway, although a simple check on the webpage of the Council of Europe provides information that the procedure has been suspended, in line with the current status of the Project. In addition, even the continuation of the Project in question does not necessarily imply that the final decision would be at the satisfaction of the Association, especially having in mind that their complaint contains several false information about the Project and its potential impacts.

In similar fashion, completely unfounded, random data regarding the potential impact of the Project on the number of jobs currently generated by agriculture in the Jadar Valley are publicly announced. The Jadar Project would displace agricultural production from the area covering cca 220 hectares of land, namely under 1% of total agricultural land on the territory of the municipality of Loznica (30,800 hectares in total). Without any obstacles, agricultural activities could be implemented on the surface simultaneously with the activities on the underground exploration within the Jadar Project. Our Company has established numerous partnerships with local farmers, which add to their revenues and incomes. Therefore, we find the claims that 20,000 jobs would be lost in the agricultural sector of Jadar and Rađevina completely unfounded.

Also, the Association is trying to assign the intention to the Company that with the demolition of facilities in our ownership the Company wants to turn the attention from Paulje archaeological site and underlines the fact that the facilities are situated at the very site. In our response we would like to highlight the fact that our neighbours we regularly communicate with also want the abandoned houses and facilities to be brought down and removed because they affect the safety of local residents as well as the beauty of the landscape. We would like to use this opportunity to once again underline that the preparation of land in our ownership does not represent the launch of the construction of the Project and that our activities are solely motivated by our intention to remove safety risks for the local community and in line with the local community’s requests.

In terms of Paulje archaeological site, our company is collaborating with the Jadar Museum in Loznica in order to provide our support for careful excavation of artefacts such as grave hummocks, ceramics, stone tools and bronze items. Whilst, on one hand, we support conventional research, excavation and preservation methods for the public exhibition of artefacts, on the other hand we invest in advanced technology such as LiDar and geomagnetic technologies which have improved the precision of exploration techniques in order to upgrade the identification and mapping of archaeological sites.

In terms of bribery and corruption-related accusations made public by the representatives of the Association, we invite them to provide evidence and proof for such unfounded accusations. If not, it is more than obvious that we are talking about false and malicious claims we will not tolerate. We would once again like to turn your attention to the fact that citizens who receive such misinformation are being directly misled and that with such incorrect information they damaging the Company, which means that we will be forced to use all legal means at our disposal to protect our rights and interests.

Finally, we’ve noticed that we have one thing in common with the Let’s protect Jadar and Rađevina Association – we agree that the opinion of Loznica residents is of vital importance. That is why, from the very start, we wanted to provide as complete and as precise information about the Project to the local community, i.e. regarding the potential impact on environment and the local community. We believe that this dialogue must be constructive and fact-based and that it is necessary that all the parties involved in the dialogue obeyed those principles. The involved parties who are not interested in genuine conversation and information, but solely in unfounded accusations, can only bring harm to both the Company and the local community because they raise concerns and confusion. In spite of this, we would once again like to remind you that we remain at your disposal, available for the continuation of the dialogue as soon as Let’s Protect Jadar and Rađevina Association expressed willingness to engage in constructive dialogue.