Displaced by mines, Serbians fight for their way of life

This is the Serbian mining town of Bor, seen from a hilltop near the village of Krivelj. The landscape is pockmarked with slag heaps from the nearby copper mine, as endless lines of orange trucks snake their way through the valley. The walls of the homes in Krivelj have cracked from the tremors of underground explosions, and some have even collapsed altogether.

"One day I was standing in the center of the village, and I kept seeing truck after truck driving through. The small bridge was swinging under their weight," said Vukosava Radivojevic, 78. She is one of two dozen women taking shifts to protest the mine. The barricade behind her holds a sign that reads "blockade" and specifies it will last "from 0 to 24 hours" — all day and all night.

"We are defending our village and houses where we were born. I feel so sorry about our beautiful village," said Stana Jorgovanovic, a 79-year-old housewife standing at the barricade.

Miners have been active in Krivelj since the 1970s. Since 2018, when the operation was taken over by China's Zijin Mining, production has quadrupled — despite tighter regulations. Now, with heaps of mine waste swallowing up parts of the village, Serbian subsidiary Serbia Zijin Copper has begun resettling the community.

Teodora Tomic, 22, is a student who has joined the movement. "We want to show the Zijin company that we still exist," she told the Reuters news agency. "I am hoping for a new village somewhere without any influence from the mine." Most people in Krivelj are Vlachs, Orthodox Christians who have preserved their own language and customs for centuries. They wish to be resettled as a community.

At a community meeting on local ecological issues caused by the nearby mining operations, some Krivelj citizens expressed concern for the safety of their children, given the many trucks. Others have stopped planting vegetables in their gardens, because authorities have warned that the ground is contaminated. Everyone here is determined to get the attention of the mining company.

China's Zijin Mining says it has invested more than $100 million (€94 million) to minimize the negative ecological impacts of mining in the area. "These concerted efforts have directly contributed to improving the environment of the Krivelj village," the company said in a statement to Reuters.

"I want a new village of Krivelj. I need a piece of land, a church and a cemetery," said Milosava Fufanovic, an elementary school teacher. "If all the people leave the barricade I will be the last [one] standing." The community is insisting on being relocated to a new village, complete with infrastructure, as a group. They do not want to be separated.

Slavica Lazarevic is also a teacher in Krivelj. "The safety of our children is at risk. I hope all the people will move together so we can keep our ethnicity," she said, adding that she was "hoping for a new school where I could teach."

Everyone in the village agrees that the relocation plans offered by Zijin Mining are insufficient. "We have built our house for years," said Debica Kostandidnovi, 58. "The money [Zijin] are offering us for it, we can't buy a single apartment." The company has said its relocation plans were developed with transparency and fairness.