Does Rio take the plunge at Jadar?

Rio Tinto is closer than ever to deciding if it wants to bring its 2004 Jadar lithium and borates discovery in Serbia into production.

Barry FitzGerald*

Jadar in Serbia ... In a big field of new lithium supply candidates

Rio's Ventures unit - charged with taking the company sans a coal division in to new business areas - has a prefeasibility study into Jadar's development "well underway'' and as recently as late March it said a mine and processing plant could potentially be in production in the early 2020s.