According to existing technologies and plans for extracting ore from the ground, processing it on the surface, and storing mining waste, it is de facto impossible to carry out in an environmentally acceptable manner.

The basic postulate, developed in the second half of the 20th century and promoted by the Club of Rome in the 1970s, is that the exhaustion of resources and environmental pollution must be considered. It is important to achieve a balance so that current resources are not depleted, and future generations do not inherit a polluted nature. What is the essence of the whole process? In mining, it is always the processing of nature into money. Mining and exploitation of natural resources represent a form of capital—natural capital, a natural good, or value that we convert into money or profit. For this, technology, a market, and demand for products are needed so that nature is processed into a product and sold. The actors involved in this process make a profit, but usually leave negative consequences for the environment. De facto, there is no mining that does not leave negative consequences for the surroundings or the environment, and the more preserved and diverse the environment, the greater the potential damage.

No, certainly not. People need to act and use natural resources; otherwise, we would return to prehistory. Certain segments of nature need to be appropriated and converted into something useful for humans, but with strict responsibility to ensure that this benefit does not cause harm elsewhere—to nature or to humans living in it. Sustainable mining is possible. Where mining is necessary, one must be aware in advance of all the damages and consequences of the process, to timely plan measures for damage prevention and remediation of the affected area—meaning to minimize changes and pollution of air, water, and soil. This is a necessary and serious process, multidimensional, which must be considered before any mining, without bias or influence from interest groups operating in the multinational company–state relationship. They often present things as ideal, while the actual consequences are significantly worse.

When it comes to mining, or attempts at mining in the Jadar Valley, the first problem is that there is no known technology for processing, extracting, or separating lithium and boron from the existing mineral structure, called jadarite, which has its own chemical-physical structure. That technology does not exist. Therefore, we cannot trust anyone on their word, and even if someone conducts laboratory experiments, they very often will not disclose all aspects to maximize their position to exploit a certain resource. That is the first issue—we do not have it. The second issue is that there is no way to avoid the destruction of the environment, especially land, forest, and water resources in the area, and the destruction of these resources means the impossibility of normal human life in the area or in the wider environment affected by pollution. Simply put, it is unacceptable, it is not economically viable for Serbia when comparing costs and benefits of such a project. Unfortunately, we do not have a single serious, objective, calm study that confronts benefits and costs to see where we are going and in which direction. Unfortunately, propaganda operates at the level of multinational companies and certain individuals at the top of our government. In the end, the President of the country, Aleksandar Vučić, as the omniscient man, advocates the whole matter. And we have a problem in that we do not want to hear another perspective. One must sit down and objectively analyze, weighing benefits on one side and harms on the other. Benefits and harms involve all actors. In this case, it is the multinational company that will maximize benefits in the form of profit, in the form of what I mentioned earlier—the extraction, or converting nature into money/profit. The state, local communities, and Serbia will receive some minor portion of the economic effect, while the damage will remain for hundreds of generations in the future in the area and across Serbia.

It is important to understand the structure of resources to then draw valid, analytical conclusions. There are resources that are exhaustible. From the moment you begin exploitation, there is a lifespan in which these resources will be depleted and will no longer exist in a given territory. The process functions roughly as follows: you start exploitation, exploitation proceeds, after a certain period—as planned here—lithium will be depleted after 30 years. The question always arises: what is the parameter, the measure by which you will evaluate the speed and profitability of exploiting a specific exhaustible natural resource? You extract it, process it from the earth, convert it into money, leave pollution, and that’s the end.

For renewable resources, the situation is somewhat different. It is necessary to consider the dynamics of their exploitation, allowing both human activity and nature itself to regenerate its resources. Greek philosophers, equating nature with God, called it Physis. This means it is important to allow nature to regenerate and avoid complete destruction of resources. Therefore, with renewable energy and other resources, it is possible to prevent human greed and profit from destroying the resource by leaving it space to renew. Mines or coal deposits, once extracted, cannot be renewed, but you can ensure that renewable resources, such as forest ecosystems, are not destroyed and are given the opportunity to regenerate, with active support from humans and economic activities of human society. This is the second aspect—two different types of resources, but a common outcome: one must ensure that resources have space to regenerate and are not exploited in a way that destroys the environment.

There is also a third theoretical group of resources: continuous resources over which humans have no influence. No human activity directly affects them—for example, wind, ocean waves, gravity, sunlight. These are continuous resources independent of us, no matter how egocentric we are as humans. It is especially important to consider the dynamics of exploitation of a particular resource. For continuous resources, thanks to scientific innovations, you can harness wind energy, solar energy, and other sources. These are very important aspects to understand. Given this, one must consider the economic policy in the resource utilization sector.