The Vareš silver mine: A brighter future for Bosnia and Herzegovina?

euronews (in English)

Strategic metals are key for the European Union as it looks to reduce its dependence on Chinese or Russian raw materials. However, a flagship mining project in Bosnia and Herzegovina is stirring anger among some residents.

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00:34 Let's go.

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00:43 The minerals here, it's good for the country.

01:02 It's good for the government here.

01:03 It's good for the community in whole, I believe.

01:06 And there will be benefits flow down through the community,

01:08 I'm sure.

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01:33 This is the whole stroke of mineralization

01:35 from Rupice deposit in Varys.

01:37 It contains the sulfites, which includes silver, gold, copper,

01:42 zinc, lead, and antimony, with a very, very high grades

01:47 of each element.

01:48 Nice to meet you.

01:48 [SPEAKING GERMAN]

02:06 We see the recent legislation passed

02:08 by the EU around sourcing their critical raw materials

02:12 internally recognizes the need for Europe

02:15 to be independent in resourcing its own future.

02:20 Bosnia-Herzegovina has a huge role to play within that.

02:23 The concentrate we're producing, which

02:25 is shipped throughout Europe, contains

02:27 all metals which are really important in a green and clean

02:31 transition.

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03:18 The second study is practically illegal in this country.

03:22 It is not approved by any authority in this country.

03:27 [SPEAKING GERMAN]

03:28 These construction works in the riverbed,

03:46 which is protection zone number two,

03:49 where such construction works are strictly forbidden,

03:54 they still do it.

03:55 Anything they pollute comes to my pipes.

03:59 And I'm supposed to drink it?

04:01 My government is endangering lives of 40,000 people

04:10 at least in my town for the sake of profit

04:15 for a British company and a couple of hundred people

04:18 to be employed.

04:20 So you know how do we call it?

04:23 It's neocolonialism.

04:24 [SPEAKING GERMAN]

04:26 I'm measuring particles in the water.

04:40 And what we've got here is 210, 213.

04:46 It was like 25 in this stream before the mining.

04:51 [SPEAKING GERMAN]

04:52 But this is a good result.

05:05 I'm very happy with the result today.

05:08 Only chromium is showing a little bit of color.

05:12 But in the past, there were chromium showing up,

05:17 bromine, chlorine.

05:21 It's not clean, not for drinking, not anymore.

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05:29 It's a very far distance from our underground mining

05:44 activities.

05:45 All studies are pretty sure that there

05:47 is a water barrier in between, that our underground waters

05:50 will not affect this water supply

05:54 on the opposite side of the hill.

05:56 Heavy metals are present, but below limit values.

06:00 And what's important and key to say here,

06:02 we are tracking it for three years

06:04 before we started our activities.

06:06 So presence of the heavy metals in this water

06:09 is actually nature of the viruses itself.

06:12 [SPEAKING GERMAN]

06:24 This is the first processing plant,

06:26 flotation in history of the country which

06:28 is going to have recirculation of the water, which

06:30 we are very proud of.

06:31 We understand, even if we are not in European Union,

06:34 we want a European mine, follow all the European legislation

06:37 or international conventions.

06:39 And we want to say the story.

06:41 It's possible to have a green mine.

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08:13 I speak with my parents, and we decide together

08:30 that was best choice for me and for my future.

08:33 I think that the opening of this mine

08:36 will be good for not only us, but for the community itself

08:41 and this town and for the country as well.

08:44 [SPEAKING GERMAN]

08:46 It's crazy and unbelievable.

09:00 I couldn't imagine that I would work here, but it happened.

09:05 It happened.

09:05 I couldn't believe.

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