An Australian mining company which has sought-after reserves of one of the world’s rarest and most obscure critical minerals has landed a conditional commitment of up to A$570 million (US$400 million) from the United States government—a move aimed at prising the supply of strategic metals away from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The site has one of the largest and highest-grade deposits of mineable scandium in the world.
Sunrise also flagged it had begun preparing for a secondary listing on a U.S. exchange, alongside its existing ASX quotation, though that would require shareholder, court and regulatory sign-off.
Scandium is not widely known outside the mining and defence industries, unlike nickel, lithium or cobalt, but it is a highly strategic metal used to produce ultra-high-strength alloys needed for the most advanced fighter jets since, when a small amount is added to aluminium, it produces alloys that are dramatically stronger and lighter—properties prized by aerospace and defence manufacturers.
It is also used in solid oxide fuel cells, crucial for providing reliable power to artificial intelligence (AI) data centres, and in components for next-generation semiconductors and wireless communications equipment.
The problem is that it is produced almost nowhere in meaningful volumes, and what does reach world markets is currently overwhelmingly of Chinese origin.
Estimates vary, but China is generally said to account for somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the world’s refined scandium, largely recovered as a byproduct of iron ore, rare earths, titanium and zirconium processing, with Russia a distant second.
Beijing’s Stranglehold on the Mineral
Global demand, though growing quickly, remains tiny by mining standards—only tens of tonnes a year—which is precisely why a handful of producers, Beijing chief among them, can exert an outsized influence over the market.
Last year, the CCP announced export curbs on the metal, citing its dual military and civilian uses.
Sunrise’s Syerston deposit can potentially break Beijing’s stranglehold.
About 9,500 Tonnes of Scandium
After drilling 1,940 holes over 73,870 metres of land, the company has estimated how much scandium sits within the site, and how confident it is in those numbers.
Looking at the whole deposit (using a lower threshold of 300 parts scandium per million), it estimates there are 9,583 tonnes of scandium in the ground, and the company is confident that 40 percent of that amount is “measured or indicated.”
This category its above an “inferred” amount, that geologists use, which suggests a less certain estimate.
Within that broader deposit there are also richer pockets—"high-grade zones”—where the ore is at least twice as concentrated (600 parts per million or more).
These pockets contain an estimated 442 tonnes of scandium, and here the company is far more confident: 88 percent of that is classified as “measured or indicated.”
Challenges to Overcome
However, the financing is intended to fund not just the mine and refinery in New South Wales but also the construction of scandium metal refining capacity in the United States.
The commitment is conditional, non-binding and subject to extensive due diligence, and Sunrise’s own cautionary language makes clear there is no guarantee the facility will ever be drawn upon.
The company still needs a positive Final Investment Decision, expected to go to its board in the second half of this year, before construction proper can begin, with first production targeted for the second half of 2028.
Sunrise also faces the practical hurdles common to any large new mine: construction and equipment costs have risen since contracts were first priced in 2025, forcing a re-tender, and the company has had to rework the project’s design and cost base—including bringing power generation onto its own balance sheet—to satisfy Washington’s due diligence requirements.
Whether Syerston can be built on time and at the promised scale will be watched closely as a test of how effectively Australian critical minerals projects can be financed as strategic assets rather than conventional mining investments, which typically have lengthy lead times.
