# Rio Tinto (in Serbia through the company Rio Sava Exploration)

The mining company behind the “Jadar” project, run through its firm Rio Sava. By 2021 it had bought only 136 of the 600 hectares it needed, while locals spoke of pressure to move out and of bribery. The government annulled all acts related to the project in 2022, but in 2025 the EU listed it as a strategic project, and in November 2025 Rio Tinto put it into a “care and maintenance” phase. According to the association “Ne damo Jadar”, the case against Rio Tinto has been sitting with the prosecution for five years, while proceedings against activists move promptly.

## Affairs

- [The „Jadar“ project and the persecution of locals and activists](https://odgovornost.rs/en/afere/jadar-rio-tinto): According to residents of Gornje Nedeljice, while buying up land for the mine it pressured them to move out, and they also mention bribery and threats of expropriation

---

Source: Odgovornost, https://odgovornost.rs/en/organizacije/rio-tinto  
As of: 5 Nov 2026  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)