Rio Tinto refutes claims made by Ljiljana Bralovic on Glas javnosti portal

Ljiljana Bralovic made several untrue claims about Rio Tinto and the Jadar Project on the Glas javnosti portal on Monday, 29 January.

Mrs. Bralovic's claim that Rio Tinto gave the "green light" to the Government of Serbia to pause the Project is untrue. Rio Tinto does not have any influence on the regulations of the Republic of Serbia. The Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the decree on the cancelation of the Spatial Plan of Special Purpose Area (SPSPA) for the Jadar Project without Rio Tinto’s involvement.

Mrs. Bralovic inferred that she has reasonable suspicions that Rio Tinto bribed senior government officials to promote the project. This claim is unfounded speculation and a direct attempt to harm Rio Tinto’s reputation. We strongly reject these allegations. We take all allegations of corruption seriously. We request Mrs. Bralovic either present evidence or retract this false claim.

Mrs. Bralovic also claimed Rio Tinto pays influencers to publicly endorse the project. Rio Tinto partners with subject matter experts to advise on studies related to technical, operational, and environmental matters, among other aspects of the project. Any opinions shared publicly by those experts are their own, independent views on the project merits, based on the data they have.

We invite Mrs. Bralovic to familiarise herself with all aspects of the project through the information publicly available on our website. We are also available to answer any legitimate questions she may have.

To protect the company from further damages, Rio Tinto will use all available legal options to protect its reputation and rights under applicable law in response to false claims and accusations.