After Rio Tinto discovers a lithium-borate deposit in western Serbia in 2004, it commissions a spatial plan from the Serbian government in 2016 for its Jadar mine project. This is approved in 2019 before the ore resources and reserves are even declared, and without adequate consultation of local residents. Overall, there is a huge lack of transparency by Rio Tinto about the project and its impacts on the environment. Impact assessments are needed to assert how mining activities would impact the area which has important historical and cultural significance. Moreover, the area affected includes the Important Bird and Biodiversity Area “Cer” and the Landscape of Outstanding Features “Cultural Landscape Tršić – Tronoša,” home to a vast number of nationally and internationally protected and “strictly protected” birds, amphibians, reptiles, and plants.