Supply shortage On Thursday, Rio said it was “extremely...

Supply shortage

On Thursday, Rio said it was “extremely concerned” by Serbia’s decision and was reviewing the legal basis for it.
The Australian government said it regretted Serbia’s decision.
Relations between Belgrade and Canberra have soured after Sunday’s deportation of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic from Australia over its covid-19 entry rules.
Djokovic spoke out in support of “clean air” in a December Instagram story post captioning a picture of the anti-mining protests, which was published by The Bridge, a digital sports platform.
Rio has already spent $450 million in pre-feasibility, feasibility and other studies on Jadar to understand the nature of the deposit, the company said in a project fact sheet in July.
“The level of opposition to it has really ratcheted up over the last six months,” Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said of the Jadar mine.
“We’ve been highlighting for a while now there would be about $2 a share at risk if the government cancels it.”
At full capacity, the Jadar mine was expected to produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate a year, making it Europe’s biggest lithium mine by output.
Experts said the world’s shortage of lithium had been forecast to last for another three years at least, but with the cancellation of the Jadar project, the shortfall would be exacerbated.
“We’re at the point now where lithium supply is going to set the pace of electric vehicle rollout,” Kavonic said.
Robust global demand for the metal far outstripping supply growth has boosted lithium prices in recent years.
Lithium futures, which started trading on the CME in May last year, have jumped 171% to a record high of $38/kg on Thursday, according to Refinitiv data.