Master of law and economics and former co-owner of a lithium processing company, Luka Erceg, when asked if he would advise someone or invest in a project in Serbia, told "Iza vesti" that he would never invest. According to him, "it is normal for people to worry whenever any mining issue is discussed" - reports N1.rs.

"Extraction, resources, especially since the project is bigger, there are bigger questions, that's normal. We should always be careful not to jump too quickly into such stories," he says.

He is of the opinion that it is very difficult to wean someone from China.

"China is now a huge producer of cathodes, anodes, a big user of lithium... The story that nowadays we will be independent from China is impossible. "During the term of Barack Obama, the US government invested billions of dollars to wean itself from Japan, China, South Korea, for new technologies, lithium, strategic minerals and they failed," he says.

As he says, "the question of whether such a project should be advanced is more of a question of whether it is strategic for the country." When asked if it is strategic to mine lithium from rocks, he says he doesn't see it that way.

"I don't see who will use it in Serbia, who in Europe, there are always customers in Asia and they have a source of supply, I don't see what this project will fill in the market. "Lithium is produced most efficiently from salt water first, a project like this from a quarry to get it out of the rock can only fill the gap in the market until salt water production expands," he says.

He says he doesn't see the logic for lithium in Serbia.

"Rio Tinto is a strong company, I can't say it's a bad company, they have strong production in other areas, when we look at the lithium projects, if that project costs $2,4 billion to install everything, there will be the possibility of 58.000 tons of lithium, which means that about $41.000 per ton needs to be invested to maintain that plant. That's far more expensive than any saltwater plant, Erceg says.

He explains that there are three, four stages to get to the battery.

When asked if he would invest in a project in Serbia, he says that he would not.

"Lithium as lithium is interesting, we invest in companies that produce lithium, but the characteristics of this project are not something we would invest in. I believe that Serbia as a country must once again ask itself if mining is a strategy", he points out.