Ministry of Mining puts application for exploration of lithium in municipality of Bogatic out of effect

The Ministry of Mining and Energy of Serbia has put out of effect the requirements that it previously issued for the preparation of the Draft Spatial Plan of that municipality which pertain to the application for the exploration of lithium and boron, Dragan Josipovic, an official of the Department of Urban Planning in that municipality, said today for the Beta news agency.

Among the requirements for the preparation of the Draft Spatial Plan that the ministry submitted a month and a half ago was a “note” to enter the “applicant” for the exploration of boron and lithium in Petlovaca, the company Edelweiss Mineral Exploration, in that document.

The document on the requirements for the preparation of the plan was signed by minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic.

The Petlovaca location belongs to the territory of the city of Sabac, but the exploration field stretches into the municipality of Bogatic as well.

The document arrived to the municipality of Bogatic yesterday, while the delegation of the municipality, led by the president, Milan Damnjanovic, was at a meeting at the ministry to determine why there had been no response to the request to send new requirements because the citizens of Bogatic “do not accept the opening of a lithium and boron exploration field,” due to which they had filed complaints and requested new requirements for the Spatial Plan.

The municipality is run by a coalition of the Serbian Progressive Party and the Socialist Party, but together with the citizens and the opposition, at the protest at the beginning of last month, they expressed their dissatisfaction and they oppose the opening of a lithium and boron exploration field in their municipality.

The representatives of the municipality were told at the meeting that “the information about entering the ‘applicant’ for the exploration of boron and lithium in Petlovaca, the company Edelweiss Mineral Exploration, is not even important, and the response has been forwarded.”

At the next session of the Municipal Assembly of Bogatic, according to Josipovic, the new Commission for Plans is supposed to be elected, because the mandates of some of the members have expired, and it will decide on the further procedure and whether the Draft Spatial Plan will be put up again for a shortened public review.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Opština Bogatić

EDELWEISS MINERAL EXPLORATION DOO

Ministry of Mining and Energy of Serbia

Municipality of Bogatić

Edelweiss Mineral Exploration

Dubravka Đedović Handanović

Dragan Josipović

Milan Damnjanović

Draft Spatial Plan

public review

lithium and boron exploration fields

requirements for the prepartion of the Draft Spatial Plan

Bogatić spatial plan

protest