Rado Savić, the mayor of the municipality of Lopare, submitted today to the minutes of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska a petition in which 3,711 citizens of Lopare oppose the mining of lithium in Majevica and the opening of the mine, announced the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS).
In addition to the petition, Savić submitted a Declaration on opposition to the opening of a lithium mine on the territory of the municipality of Lopare.
“We oppose the idea of opening a lithium mine in Majevica. In the municipality of Lopare, in seven days, 3,711 lists of citizens who oppose the idea of opening a lithium mine on the territory of our municipality were collected. We wrote the Declaration that we submitted to the protocol of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and we ask and ask the deputies to adopt that declaration,” said Savić at the press conference held in Banja Luka in front of the seat of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska.
Savić expects that the Assembly will accept the citizens’ initiative and oppose the opening of the said mine due to the harm to people’s health with the appropriate act.
“The majority of the residents of our municipality, more than 90 percent, are against the opening of the lithium mine, as well as the neighboring local communities. Both the City of Bijeljina and the municipality of Čelić are against it. The planned location of the mine is in the immediate vicinity of the inhabited town of Lopare, which causes people to fear the release of toxic substances. One of the problems is that there are two watercourses nearby, the Janja and Gnjica rivers, which belong to the Sava and Drina river basins,” emphasized Savić.
According to him, the problem is that the lithium exploitation technology is not known, and numerous investors in the fruit growing sector are protesting about the potential exploitation.
“There is no such mine in Europe and the fear of citizens is great. We stood by our citizens and we expect the National Assembly of Republika Srpska to adopt the declaration we submitted today, and the competent ministry not to grant a concession for lithium exploitation if it is requested from the company,” said Savić.
With him on this occasion was the President of the Lopare Municipal Assembly, Milenko Ristić, it was stated in the announcement.
