“First they try to make us poor, and then they try to buy us with cheap labour”. Ecodefense against mining in East Serbia
The Zbor camp in September 2024. Source: Franziska Müller
Editorial Note: Under the banner of becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent, the European Union has embarked on the mission to “decarbonize” its economy—producing and emitting less carbon into the atmosphere. The political initiatives bundled in the framework programme of the European Green Deal (EGD) encompass measures aimed at “greening” and growing various economic sectors, such as energy, transport, industry and agriculture. This growth and green industry, from wind turbines to electric vehicles (EVs), requires an enormous amount of mined materials. The Critical Raw Materials Act further underpins this agenda by aiming at securing the supply of raw materials needed by European industry for the desired ‘green transition’ in key industry sectors. The EU has earmarked funding for 170 so-called ‘strategic projects’ from 2025. This also entails expanding ‘domestic’ intra-European mining by 10 percent by 2030. This expansion of mining on the European continent targets regions rich in minerals, seculed and marginalize—at a national and geopolitical scale.
Serbia, the post-Yugoslavian country, remains a perfect example of being resource rich and on the margins of Europe. Serbia was put on the map with 2021-2022 mobilizations protesting Rio Tinto’s extraction of lithium in the Jadar region. While lithium extraction and massive public protests have sparked international attention, less is known about new attempts to exploit gold and copper resource in the East Serbian region of Homolje, by the Canadian Company Dundee Precious Metals and the Chines company Zijin Mining. In December 2021, Dundee Precious Metals announced their plans to open a gold mine in Homolje using surface extraction techniques involving cyanide. Resistance is materializing, often expressed in “ecopopulist” land defence situated in a post-war terrain. The “Zbor network”, a transnational collaboration of Balkan and West European activists has organized the first ever anti-mining camp in September 2024. Named after partisan assemblies in former Yugoslavia, Zbor draws on a rich history of Balkan solidarity to counter resource extractivism. Their activism extends beyond Serbia, drawing connections between local struggles and a broader critique of capitalist extractivism across the former Yugoslavia—a region where solidarity has long been a transnational endeavor, from the partisan resistance to the non-aligned movement. The following interview is with two environmental activists, “Big Bear” and “Ris” provides an account of the current situation, recalling fear, hopes, and resistance strategies.
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Franziska Müller (FM): It’s the end of September, and we're in the Homolje mountains in East Serbia, close to Žagubica and Majdanpek, in a very remote place, which is one of the least populated places in Southeast Europe. The Đerdap national park is just 10 kilometres away. There is ongoing drilling operations close to our site and we hear the drilling noise night and day. We are here at a campsite that has been set up about a week ago. Today I'm talking to “Big Bear” and “Ris”. First of all, I'd just like you to quickly introduce yourself.
Ris: I'm a member of RIS, which stands for “Rangers of Eastern Serbia,” but also is a protected animal species called Ris or lynx.
Big Bear: Thanks for being interested in these topics, which is very important for our struggle. As you said, we are in one of the most unpopulated area in Southeast Europe, which means that there are a bunch of protected endangered species. When an area is basically unpopulated, like here in Serbia, forests recover. But here come the mining companies. All sorts of ecocidal companies are trying to destroy this beautiful place. So that's why we are here. That's why I am here, to protect those species and to be a voice for those who cannot speak.
Machinery drilling prospecting holes in the Homolje area. Source: Xander Dunlap
FM: So what is your role in all that? What are you trying to achieve here?
Big Bear: There are not a lot of us here at the moment, so we just try to do everything. We are doing media work; we are recording endangered species. Also, we are organizing protests as often as we can, talking to the local people to introduce them to the idea of anti-extractivism. In this area, the companies have been here for 20 years or so, so they are already deeply embedded into the community and the community almost trusts them, because they have enormous resources. They pretend to be socially and environmentally friendly. So, we are trying to show the real part of the story.
Ris: This region has seen a lot of depopulation. It seems that it's a strategy of the Republic of Serbia to extract people from these border areas of Serbia, especially the Eastern part. Historical data proves that mining activities date back to pre-Roman times. So, it's pretty characteristic for this area. The current exploration of minerals started 15 years ago, initiated by the Canadian company called Dundee. So officially, they are looking for gold and other minerals.
FM: How are the drillings affecting the riverine systems and people's health?
Ris: This whole area here is abundant with water; water springs, streams, and rivers that are home for some endangered but also protected animal species such as the river crab, which is one of the most significant indicators of crystal clean water. The whole drilling situation that has been happening here for the past 15 years has significantly damaged the quality of these streams and the water, especially in the low areas of the mountain of Homolje. This is a karst terrain, which is made of magmatic rocks. The drilling is contaminating the surface waters, which are connected to all of the streams. But because of the karst area, sometimes the surface waters mix with the underground mining waters, which then means that the ground water also becomes polluted, so that we finally end up with systemic underwater pollution.We already see that the species are migrating because of this. They are moving back, or they're trying to escape all the pollution.
FM: You say the logging itself is illegal and that there isn't even a permit for that.
Big Bear: There is no legal way to mine this area. So, companies are usually get involved by making deals with illegal loggers, so they clean the area, they cut the forest. They make a clean cut. Then they build roads without a permit. Nothing. Then drilling starts, and it's happening so fast. Companies come and go after everything is clear cut. They come and they make deals with some local people that agree to logging and get paid for logging.
FM: That's an important point. Maybe you could also focus on who owns the land, who wants to sell, and how these contractors’ businesses are evolving?
Big Bear: Most of these areas are private areas. We have a national park nearby. But the area where the mine is planned is mostly private land. The people here have a whole history of mining exploration and have become used to it. Even in times of the communist state, they had to give up their land for exploration to let people do the exploration work. Now they feel like they're again obliged to give their land. So, the company comes and pays them very little. I realized that some people are not even getting paid, like, they just built the road through their property, but they're paid like 100 EUR for drilling.
FM: How do the locals feel about this? Is there great division amongst them and within the villages?
Ris: The main problem, besides the depopulation and the demographic structure of the population here, which consists more of elderly people, is the dire economic situation and the fear that they are in. So first they try to make us poor, and then they try to buy us with cheap labour, by offering jobs in the mining, which sometimes seems like the only way out for certain people and populations.
Big Bear: This area is very corrupt, so people are scared of the local thugs, while they also depend on them. So many people, more than half of the community, keep their mouth shut.
FM: That's a very important point. Maybe you could say a bit more on how the diaspora comes in. I know there are many people living in Vienna who have a connection to Homolje.
Ris: The diaspora is very well informed about what's happening in Serbia, on the mining issues and problems that it brings.
Big Bear: Yeah, there are all these people who emigrated 20 years ago and are now returning. Many people that live outside of Serbia and are from this area, they're completely against the mine. They just want to have a place where they will come back, which is as beautiful as it has been before. They want to show their kids “this is where I was born, this is how beautiful it is, and it is not going to be destroyed”. And we'll do our best to not let this area be destroyed.
FM: So maybe to move to a more abstract level, how does the Serbian state come in? What role does it play here?
Ris: So, if you ask me, the Serbian state is non-existent and its institutions are non-existent as well, they have been dysfunctional for the past 30 years. So, the people who are left to live here cannot actually rely on the accountability of institutions like the judiciary systems or the police or any other institutions that should actually protect them. The only safe space that we find are our allies, the rare individuals that have integrity, especially those with an academic record and prestige. That’s how we got aware of all these projects because we got into contact with them and they explained us like, what are the devastating consequences of mining here in this area.
FM: I wasn't aware about the connection to academia, and this seems to be one of the very rare situations where academia can at least be of help.
Ris: So, it wasn't just the mining issue that got us related to the academics, but it was the previous fight against the hydro dam on the river. They supported us with their expertise on this case and helped us in the fight. So, we also continued this collaboration with them, even in the anti-mining struggle.
FM: I'll maybe focus a bit more on the broader context. Mining is a transnational business, and also here we find this very long value creation chain, leading to Canada or to China. So which companies are involved, and why are they coming exactly to Serbia? And why gold?
Big Bear: So, the mining law in Serbia is about the same mining law as in the Republic of Congo [laughs]. That's probably the reason, why a bunch of companies are coming here. And no matter whether it's a Chinese company or a Canadian company or a company from United States or some other company, they just work together. So, they are negotiating, selling licenses to each other. Zijin is a Chinese company that works in Bor and Majdanpek.Here in Homolje, one of the companies is planning to build a mine. I wanted to say planning to destroy this area, but it's of course done for the sake of the precious metals, yeah. So they have their projects in Namibia, also in Bulgaria, and they also want to start a project in Ecuador, but community there is against it. They also have endangered species that are on the red list, just like here in Homolje.
FM: We are in a very remote territory, and this is also an area where security threats are an enormous issue. All over the world we are witnessing a rising tide of violence against environmental activists, and I guess Serbia is no exception. Could you also say something on the security situation?
Ris: In states like Serbia, and especially provinces like this one, we can find local sheriffs that are connected to some mafia activities and to criminal groups that are controlling the area. And this really looks like some situation in Latin America where you have the law of the mafia, and the mafia controls everything. So, we are in kind of in a similar situation regarding safety and security. We as activists, of course, have negative experiences with these criminal groups. One day I was kidnapped in the casino of the mayor of the municipality of Žagubica. I was threatened that I should not mention his name in relation to the mining site. Since this happened I'm trying to do my best to mention his name as much as possible in the public so that everyone knows what he did. In fact, I was pretty shocked when I realized that the criminal groups are actually the authority in this municipality. But I wanted this to go public because I want to warn other people and other communities and to also encourage them to act upon injustice such as this one.
FM: Thank you so much. As for a final question. What are your hopes? Is there anything else that you would like to say?
Ris: My issue with all of this is the non-existence of the institutions that should protect us as citizens in this country. Our goal is to fill in this vacuum and to prevent all of the ecological criminality that is happening. Our hope is that the local community becomes aware of what is happening and that with our support and help, they realize that only the free people can make reasonable decisions.
This here is a living example of the dysfunctionality of the ‘green’ transition concept. It all started with the building of dams and hydropower projects; then it evolved into large-scale wind power, with the consequence of deforestation also in this very place. And then it continued into the evolvement of mining projects, which are actually destroying everything on their way. Mining will be completely destructive for the entire biosphere and biodiversity of this very abundant area.
Big Bear: My biggest hope is that we will succeed so that the mine will not be opened. Our most important task is letting people know about what we do here, like how many species of endangered species are living here, and how important it is for this area to be protected.
Homolje area. Source: Franziska Müller