Rio unit retooled for battery boom
Serbian mining project yields large amounts of lithium and borates
Melbourne — During the financial crisis, Rio Tinto Group needed cash and tried to unload its oldest mining business — one that began in 1872 hauling borates salts by mule from Death Valley to make US laundry soap. The company gave up on a sale because no one would pay the asking price. A decade later, the business is poised to be one of Rio’s most promising. That is partly because a borates deposit Rio discovered in the hills of Serbia contains a huge amount of another mineral that is becoming a hot commodity for the 21st century — lithium — used to make batteries that run electric cars and all sorts of mobile devices. London-based Rio, already a major producer of coal, aluminium, iron ore and copper, says the Jadar project could supply about 10% of global demand for the metal. With sales expected to triple by 2025 to about $6bn annually, lithium may exceed the size of the market for tin, a metal used widely in cans and steel. Jadar is so rich in lithium that it could make Rio a top...
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