Geopolitical mimicry or how Rio Tinto suddenly became a “Chinese” company

Is the worst thing that could happen to Serbia not the lithium mine near Loznica, but the possibility that we might end up with the same mine anyway, after pro-Western political parasites once again hijack citizen protests?

“Xi Jinping’s fingers around Jadar,” “The great Chinese shadow over the Rio Tinto project in Serbia,” “Chinese are the largest shareholders of Rio Tinto,” “Reputed as a Western company: Who actually owns Rio Tinto?”…

Someone who has read only the reports from pro-Western media in Serbia and the Balkans in recent weeks could easily conclude that Rio Tinto is not a British-Australian company, but a secretly Chinese company preparing to open a lithium mine in Jadar.

The reason for these headlines is the fact that the Chinese Aluminum Corporation has about a 13 percent stake in the mentioned mining company and is, individually, its largest shareholder. However, it is conveniently omitted that out of the 14 members of Rio Tinto’s Board of Directors, from Chairman Dominic Barton to the last member Ben Wyatt, there is not a single Chinese name or even an Asian face.

If we look at the company’s Executive Committee, which has eleven members, we will find only one Asian person. That is Bold Baatar, responsible for copper projects, but he is not from China; he is from Mongolia.

Is China really interested in Jadar?

The interest of the struggling German industry

There are several reasons for the presence of the Chinese Aluminum Corporation in Rio Tinto, but among them is not the new project like “Jadar,” which, from a logical standpoint, is not in China’s strategic interest. It is primarily a matter of the global cooperation scale that China has been achieving at home with Rio Tinto for decades.

The urgent opening of the lithium mine near Loznica is solely in the interest of the struggling German automotive industry, that is, the European Union, which currently imports lithium and other technological components from China and wants to reverse this trend in its favor, especially after facing the impressive growth of Chinese electric vehicle production and sales in recent times.

When they say that China, masked as Rio Tinto, is actually going to mine jadarite near Loznica, pro-Western media are selling us a pure oxymoron: it is not in China’s interest to stop exporting lithium and other technological components to the European Union (read: Germany).

It’s another matter that China would never blow up a competing gas pipeline or organize a coup in a country preparing to open a mine intended exclusively for its competitors in the global market, in this case, the recovery of the German automotive industry from a classic market knockout.

In what universe is such a thing possible?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently stated unequivocally in Belgrade, without any hesitation, that the Memorandum of Understanding on the strategic partnership between Serbia and the EU on sustainable raw materials, battery production chains, and electric vehicles, which is the formal framework for opening a lithium mine, will contribute to reducing Europe’s dependence on other countries (read: China) in the field of sustainable raw materials, in this case, lithium.

“This is an important European project that will help Europe remain sovereign in a changing world, not dependent on others. We must reduce our dependence; we must have a resilient structure in supply chains,” Scholz said at a press conference in Belgrade.

In what universe, besides the world of media manipulation and deceit, would any great power, even China, consciously shoot itself in the economic and thus political foot?

If we know that, according to official announcements, lithium from Jadar should meet the vast majority of Germany’s, that is, Europe’s needs for that metal over the next fifteen to twenty years, it appears that China, due to a 13 percent stake of one of its companies in Rio Tinto’s ownership structure, wants to sacrifice its entire export of lithium-ion batteries to Germany and the European Union, which recorded a record value of $23.3 billion last year, plus over $10 billion, or according to the Atlantic Council, $14.5 billion worth of electric vehicle exports.

The Chinese stake in Rio Tinto

Why does the Chinese Aluminum Corporation have a stake in Rio Tinto? The most significant reason for China’s stake in Rio Tinto, with data varying between 11 to 14 percent according to different sources, is the importance of the insatiable Chinese market for Rio Tinto, or China’s interest in securing basic conditions for its own economic development and growth at home.

According to very precise data from Rio Tinto’s annual report, the company achieved 59.6 percent of all its revenues in China last year.

By comparison, the second-largest market for Rio Tinto last year was the US with a 13.9 percent share of the company’s revenue, and the third was all of Asia excluding China and Japan with 7.2 percent. Japan follows with 6.9 percent and Europe excluding the UK with 5.3 percent.

We are talking about a mining giant with 57,000 employees, operating in 35 countries, achieving an annual net profit of around ten to twelve billion dollars, and noting in its official report that the aforementioned 59.6 percent revenue was achieved in China, including Taiwan.

Transparent, not secret collaboration

How connected China is with Rio Tinto on its own market is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that on July 19th this year, the delivery of the fourth billionth ton of iron ore from Pilbara in Western Australia to China was marked, even celebrated.

The ore shipment was delivered from Dampier Port in Australia to the China Baowu Steel Group, the world’s largest steel producer.

Rio Tinto and China Baowu have been doing business for 51 years. Over more than half a century, China has become Rio Tinto’s largest customer, with about 250 million tons of iron ore annually.

Four billion tons of iron ore, which Rio Tinto has so far delivered to China from its mine in Australia, is enough to produce steel for 45,000 large bridges or more than 23,000 stadiums like the Bird’s Nest in Beijing.

When Rio Tinto partnered with China, it did so transparently, not secretly. For example, in 1987, Rio Tinto formed a joint venture with China called “Channar.” This joint venture in Western Australia laid the foundations for many subsequent joint projects between Rio Tinto, China, and Australia in that part of the world.

Strategic connections

The “Western Range” is the latest mine in Australia to be opened in collaboration with Rio Tinto and the China Baowu Group. The mine is expected to start operating next year and will have an annual production capacity of 25 million tons of iron ore.

Rio Tinto’s CEO, Simon Trott.

Rio Tinto’s CEO, Simon Trott, said that China has been a key partner for Rio Tinto in Australian mining for over five decades.

“China’s strong demand for high-quality minerals such as iron ore has created significant opportunities for investment and trade between the two countries. Every time I visit China and see skyscrapers, high-speed railways, and all the infrastructure that has helped improve the lives of 1.4 billion people, it makes me proud to think that most of what I see contains steel made from Rio Tinto’s iron ore,” Simon Trott said on July 19th.

From the foregoing, it is easy to conclude that China is connected with Rio Tinto through strategic ties related to the development of the entire Chinese economy and consequently Rio Tinto’s profits in the Chinese market, rather than a single, relatively small mining project.

Political “Alien”

On the other hand, in Serbia today, from the perspective of pro-Western political forces and pro-Western NGOs, it is politically opportune to be against the opening of the lithium mine in Jadar, given the strict public stance and the vulnerability of the Serbian government on this issue.

The worst thing that could happen to Serbia is not the lithium mine near Loznica in an ecological sense, but the possibility that we might end up with the same mine anyway, after pro-Western political parasites once again hijack citizen protests, channel them towards their agendas and interests, use them and expend them for their own, not the people’s and ecological goals.

The first step of this political “Alien” is the lie that has been intensively spread in recent weeks that the mine near Loznica is being opened by the Chinese.

This is a very concrete example of manipulating public opinion and how the “Jadar” project can be abused in a geopolitical game.

Let’s remember how the same political forces, at the end of the nineties, claimed that the issue of Kosovo and Metohija would become democratic with the mere change of regime in Belgrade, and that the aspirations of the Albanians in the southern province to secede from Serbia would become pointless, because we would all be on the European path together. Politically, it was not opportune before the elections to be for the independence of Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, so geopolitical mimicry had to be resorted to.

Just a few years later, the declaration of independence in Pristina for them overnight turned from a “democratic issue” into an “inevitability” and a “logical consequence of Belgrade’s criminal policy.”

Remember Kosovo

Something similar could happen in the medium term with the lithium mine near Loznica.

Initially, the mine could indeed be treated as a first-rate democratic issue, but after achieving the political goals of pro-Western centers of power, it could easily become an “inevitability” without any alternative.

The protest in Smederevo, scheduled for August 5th against Rio Tinto, already includes a protest against the future Chinese refinery which has nothing to do with Rio Tinto and is yet to be built in that city, even though no one yet knows what technology the future refinery will use or whether it will indeed be a major polluter.

No one idealizes the operations of Chinese companies, anywhere, not even in Serbia. These companies are like any other, but criticism of their work should be consistently argued, not politically selective, or used only when it suits pro-Western centers of power.

The idea to portray Rio Tinto as a Chinese company, partially or entirely, in public is a serious media operation to spin Serbian public opinion. It comes from political forces that are not against the mine itself, but want to extract political energy and support from the ongoing general dissatisfaction of citizens, after which the mine in Jadar, anyway, this time as an “inevitability” we cannot oppose, will gain citizenship rights, just like the self-declared statehood in the area of Kosovo and Metohija.