Tonight, the company Rio Tinto denied that the colored water in the lake in Gornje Nedeljice was in any way connected with their research of the Jadar deposit.
“Bara (lake) in Gornje Nedeljice is located on a private plot on which the company Rio Sava Exploration (RSE), part of Rio Tinto, does not lay claim or perform any tests,” Rio Tinto said in a statement regarding the information that the beginning of their excavations the reason the water in the lake is red.
RSE called on the owner of the plot on which the lake is located to “inform the competent inspection bodies about this phenomenon without delay, in order to determine the composition and origin of the spilled red water.”
It is added that RSE is also very interested in finding out the cause of this unusual phenomenon from the competent and professional bodies.
“From 2007 to 2018, within a radius of about 200 meters, there were 15 exploration wells that were used to determine the position of the ore body in the Jadar deposit- None of these 15 wells was constructed as hydrogeological, the wells were cemented from the bottom to the ground “There is no groundwater around them and there can be no groundwater circulating anywhere,” Rio Tinto said.
The company added that it was “absolutely impossible” that these wells were the cause of the accumulation of water, nor that it was painted red-
As it was pointed out, the Jadar project is in the phase of a feasibility study, and only after obtaining all permits can the construction of the mine and all accompanying capacities begin.
“It cannot be said that Rio Tinto ‘started excavating’ because it has been at least five years since then,” the company said in a statement.