The walk to Malka Golaja: a sign at the boreholes, and over 50 protected species in the same fields

On 6 June 2026, a group of activists, biologists and local journalists walked up to Malka Golaja, to the place where Serbia Zijin Mining is drilling exploration boreholes. While we were on site, the works were paused.

The sign

On the approach to the boreholes stood a trilingual no-access sign. In English and Chinese it said access was forbidden to pedestrians; in Serbian, a homophobic slur stood in place of the word "pedestrians". Miljko Stojanović of Glas Zaječara, who had been at the same spot five days earlier, told N1 the sign had not been there then. Other signs at the site are riddled with errors: one is in Chinese only, another misspells the name of Zaječar.

Serbia Zijin Mining told N1 that it had neither put up the sign nor approved its content, that it operates according to principles of non-discrimination, and that it had opened an internal review. The sign was removed as soon as the footage surfaced. The municipal inspectorate, notified the same day, replied that it could not come out because the land is private property.

Whether this was a translation error or someone's "joke" remains unclear. What is not in doubt is that the message stood for days at the entrance to a site on the territory of the city of Zaječar.

What we saw there

Six days after the walk, on 11 June, the national forestry and hunting inspectorate visited the same site and found that 11.49 hectares of forest had been destroyed in breach of the Forest Act, and ordered the works stopped.