The US Department of War will lend $400 million to Sunrise Energy Metals to build the Syerston Scandium Project in New South Wales, Australia, which the White House calls the world's first primary scandium mine. The deal came alongside more than $2 billion in broader critical-minerals financing and a Lockheed Martin offtake agreement for scandium oxide.
On August 7, 2026, the US Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital announced a conditional loan of $400 million to Sunrise Energy Metals Limited for the Syerston Scandium Project near Fifield, New South Wales. The White House is calling it the world's first primary scandium mine.
The announcement came during a White House roundtable attended by President Donald Trump and senior mining-sector executives, framing the investment as part of a push to pull critical mineral supply chains away from China and toward allied nations.
Why scandium, and why now
Scandium is a silvery-white metal that, added in small quantities to aluminum, produces alloys that are lighter and stronger than standard aluminum, making scandium-aluminum composites a preferred material for fighter jets, spacecraft, and other aerospace components. China dominates both scandium production and processing, and the metal is not produced in meaningful quantities anywhere in the Western world as a primary product — it typically only emerges as a byproduct of titanium or uranium mining. Syerston would target a high-grade scandium deposit as its main commercial objective instead.
Lockheed Martin has already signaled where it expects the metal to go: the defense contractor signed a non-binding offtake arrangement with Sunrise Energy Metals covering up to 75 tonnes of scandium oxide over the next five years.
Part of a broader $2 billion push
The loan did not arrive in isolation. The US government announced more than $2 billion in total financing commitments for critical minerals and battery materials projects alongside the Syerston deal, channeled through the Office of Strategic Capital inside the Department of War.
Sunrise Energy Metals trades on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker SRL. The loan is conditional, meaning the company must meet specific milestones and terms before funds are fully disbursed. The Syerston deposit has been known for years, but development has historically struggled to attract the financing needed to move from feasibility studies to construction.
By routing the money through the Department of War's capital arm rather than a development finance institution, Washington is signaling that scandium supply now sits alongside military procurement rather than trade promotion.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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