MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Rio Tinto is keen to restart talks with the Serbian government to revive plans for its $2.4 billion Jadar lithium project, blocked ahead of the country’s recent election, the company’s chairman, Simon Thompson, said on Thursday.
“We very much hope that we will be able to discuss all of the options with the government of Serbia now the elections are out of the way,” Thompson told shareholders at the company’s Australian annual meeting.
He said the project was “very important for Serbia” as it could add 4% to the country’s GDP and open up opportunities for Serbia to develop a downstream business to supply green technology to the European automotive market.
(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
