Overview
| Status | Inactive / Suspended |
| Mine Type | Underground |
| Commodities |
- Lithium
- Borate
- Sodium sulphate
- Li2O
- B2O3
|
| Mining Method |
|
| Mine Life | 40 years (as of Jan 1, 2021) |
In January 2022, the Government of Serbia cancelled the Spatial Plan for the Jadar project and required all related permits to be revoked.
Rio Tinto continues to explore options with all stakeholders on how to progress this world-class opportunity to the highest environmental standards. |
Source:
p. 12
Rio Sava Exploration d.o.o. (Rio Sava), a fully owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto Energy and Minerals Product Group, is the legal owner of the Jadar Project.
Contractors
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Summary:
The Jadar deposit, discovered in 2004 in western Serbia, is a concentration of lithium and boron in a mineral new to science named jadarite, LiNaSiB3O7(OH). The deposit is located in a valley with flat-lying farmland covering a surface area of 3.0 km by 2.5km. Known lithium and borate mineralisation lies at depths from 100 m to 720 m below surface.
The mineralization is hosted in a lacustrine sedimentary sequence of Miocene age dominated by calcareous claystones, siltstones, sandstones and clastic rocks (about 400 m to 500 m thick). The sequence dips to the north at between 0 and 25 degrees or more, but typically between 5 and 10 degrees, and it includes several thin tuff beds that provide valuable marker horizons for stratigraphic correlation. Miocene sediments lay unconformable on a basement of Cretaceous age.
The deposit includes three types of mineralization occurring as stratiform lenses of variable thickness, and hosted in gently dipping sequence of mainly fine-grained sediments that is dissected by faults:
- Jadarite LiNaSiB3O7(OH) mineralization, new to science and so far unique to this deposit; occurs within a stratiform sedimentary lacustrine sequence with sub-horizontal beds of jadarite as rounded grains, nodules, or concretions generally in the range 1 mm to 10 mm in a siltstone/mudstone matrix. Jadarite is mainly concentrated in three gently dipping tabular zones known as the Upper, Middle and Lower Jadarite Zones (UJZ, MJZ and L ........
Summary:
The orebody will be extracted using underground mining methods which are variants of cut and fill, and bench stoping. Mining panels were generated on regular grids within each structural zone. Internal to these panels, individual mining stopes and associated development accesses were created for interrogation and scheduling.
The underground mine will be accessed via a twin shaft system located outside the Jadar River floodplain to the southwest of the LJZ. The main production shaft will be 8.5 m diameter and equipped with two 9 t skips capable of hoisting a peak 7,200 t/day of ore and rock waste material.
Source:
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Source:
Summary:
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Projected Production:
| Commodity | Product | Units | Avg. Annual |
|
Lithium
|
Carbonate
|
t
| 58,000 |
|
Borate
|
Acid
|
t
| ...... |
|
Sodium sulphate
|
Salt
|
t
| ...... |
Reserves at December 31, 2022:
| Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
|
Indicated
|
85 Mt
|
Li2O
|
1.76 %
|
|
|
Indicated
|
85 Mt
|
B2O3
|
16.1 %
|
14 Mt
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
85 Mt
|
Li2O
|
1.76 %
|
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
85 Mt
|
B2O3
|
16.1 %
|
14 Mt
|
|
Inferred
|
58 Mt
|
Li2O
|
1.87 %
|
|
|
Inferred
|
58 Mt
|
B2O3
|
12 %
|
7 Mt
|
|
Total Resource
|
144 Mt
|
Li2O
|
1.8 %
|
|
|
Total Resource
|
144 Mt
|
B2O3
|
14.6 %
|
21 Mt
|
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