Less than 50 kilometers (31 miles) separate Serbia's Jadar Valley and Bosnia's Mount Majevica — two regions divided by a border but bound together by lithium deposits and fears of industrial plunder.

In both countries — Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina — foreign mining giants have set their sights on the region's deposits of lithium, a lucrative chemical element crucial for renewable energy systems.

And in both countries, they are being opposed by unusually dogged, globally networked civic movements.

Why the opposition to lithium mining?

Lithium is among the world's most sought-after minerals and is often referred to as "white gold" because of its key importance to renewable energy systems, which often include rechargeable lithium batteries.

But as important as lithium may be for the energy transition, activists warn that the extraction of lithium can ravage ecosystems and harm human health.

One of the reasons for this is that it requires the use of chemicals such as sulfuric acid, which can contaminate soil, water and air.

In 2021, Serbian scientists found that exploratory drilling in Serbia had already polluted the soil. The scientists warned that the toxins carried by ground and surface waters could cross national borders.

How resistance began in Serbia

In Serbia, the campaign against lithium mining began in September 2019 when local politician Dragan Karajcic learned about lithium extraction plans at a municipal meeting.

A hastily convened citizens' assembly attracted 300 people and marked the start of resistance to lithium mining in the region.

The campaign quickly spread across 22 villages in a region known as Serbia's breadbasket because of its immense agricultural yields.

Active groups in Serbia

A number of groups are involved. Most members of the We Won't Give Up Jadar movement hail from the farming hamlet of Gornje Nedeljice in Serbia.

They have spent five years analyzing environmental reports, examining permits, mapping land earmarked for lithium mining and monitoring the presence of people they consider suspicious out-of-town visitors in their village.

Another group, Mars sa Drine (March from the Drina river), claims that the extraction of lithium "would wipe out thriving villages, destroy farmland cultivated for generations and threaten areas rich in cultural heritage and protected wildlife."

"We had meetings with the company [Rio Tinto]," says Zlatko Kokanovic of We Won't Give Up Jadar. "Whenever we pushed them, they just shrugged. They said they'll do their best to meet standards."

The Serbs' activism is hands-on, designed to complicate the company's path by way of street protests, physically blocking institutions, legal complaints and a continued presence in the public eye.

Broad collective action against lithium mining

We Won't Give Up Jadar's main strength, say its members, lies in collective involvement. Whole families participate, doing each other's work in the fields when the need arises.

What began as local resistance gained traction and broader support. 

The first to speak out was the country's most prominent academic institution, the Serbian Academy of Sciences, which published a comprehensive report saying that lithium mining is potentially harmful to the environment.

High-profile entertainers, opposition figures and other activists from Belgrade and across the country drew attention to the cause and turned it into a national issue.

The Serbian parliament debated the issue in October 2024. There was even a citizens' legislative initiative to ban lithium mining.

Other environmental NGOs used international networks to spread the message beyond the Balkans, culminating in the 2022 Jadar Declaration: a pledge of global solidarity against lithium exploitation.

Activists from the UK, Argentina, Spain, Chile, Portugal and Germany gathered in Serbia to sign the declaration and join forces.

On hold in Serbia

This yearslong, grassroots battle has yielded results: It has led not only to the birth of a Europe-wide movement against lithium mining but also to a temporary stop in lithium mining in Serbia.

The Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto is not investing in more land, and its infrastructure projects are on hold.

"There'll be no mine," says Zlatko Kokanovic, a resident of the Jadar Valley and one of the leaders of the movement in Serbia, with hope in his voice.

This doesn't mean, however, that either the mining company or the Serbian government has given up.

Cooperation is key

On the other side of the Drina River, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, like-minded organizations are locked in a battle with officials and foreign companies, but they have yet to slow their plans.

When news about plans to mine lithium in Bosnia broke, activists from Serbia offered their support and access to their formidable coalition.

The NGOs Guardians of Majevica, Center for Environment and Eco Path are part of a Bosnian alliance that transcends ethnic and religious differences. In March and April, they organized protests that were attended by thousands of citizens.

"For years we've exchanged information with colleagues from Serbia, learning from their example," says Tihomir Dakic of the Center for Environment. "Now we attend the same meetings, and advocate together for environmental protection, even as far away as Berlin and Brussels."

Many in Bosnia fear that the fertile agricultural fields of the Semberija and Posavina regions and ecosystems, such as that of the Drina, could suffer.

The Majevica enterprise would be just 13 kilometers from the central Bosnian city of Tuzla, which would make it the world's first lithium mine in close proximity to an urban center.

No religious and national divisions

The Bosnian activists — which count ethnic Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks among their number — say that the campaign has erased religious and national divisions that have long plagued the region.

Even religious institutions expressed their solidarity with the campaign, a rarity in the region, where clerics traditionally side with the political powers that be.

The Serbian Orthodox Bishop Fotije Sladojevic in Bosnia publicly urged Serbian and Bosnian authorities to abandon the mining plans.

Formidable hurdles

Nevertheless, civil society in both Serbia and Bosnia faces formidable hurdles that have been designed to marginalize local voices.

In 2022, Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed a law on geological exploration that removed local communities' authority to make decisions on such matters.

Activists argue that this legal shift cleared the path for foreign companies to obtain concessions without proper scrutiny.

The activists' success in Serbia has provided a boost for allies in Bosnia. Still, the question remains as to whether this momentum will be short-lived, as developments on both sides of the Drina River largely depend on the political situations in both countries.

But their movement is now transnational and united: A campaign that grew and profited from one side reaching out, the other accepting support and both sides working closely with each other.

Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan

This article is part of a four-part series on crossborder civil society in Europe conducted with the support of Journalismfund Europe.