Rio Tinto will stop working on the development of a lithium mine in Serbia two decades after first discovering a deposit on the site, with the Jadar project set to fall victim to the cost-cutting and restructure being pursued by the resources giant’s new chief executive Simon Trott.

The lithium and borates deposit in the Jadar Valley was discovered by Rio in 2004 and in 2021 announced plans to spend $US2.4 billion ($3.7 billion) building Europe’s biggest lithium mine. Many at the company considered the proposal one of former chief executive Jakob Stausholm’s pet projects.