In Serbia’s Jadar Valley, not far from the Bosnian border, rolling forested hills fringe a classic postage-stamp array of fields. A narrow tree-lined river snakes through the scene. Barely any roads are visible. The houses are dotted about, rather than bunched into a tight village.

It’s a timeless Balkan landscape, and could hardly look more peaceful. It was in this tranquil place that Rio Tinto arrived in 2001, suspicious that there could be lucrative boron, ripe for unearthing, beneath the green quilt.