Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL, OTCQX:SREMF) said Monday the company intends to pursue listing on a U.S. securities exchange, following news on Friday that the US Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital confirmed a conditional commitment of up to $400 million in financing to support the development of Sunrise’s 100%-owned Syerston scandium project in New South Wales, Australia.
Scandium is essential for defence, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence infrastructure and wireless spectrum technologies.
The US has not actively mined scandium in decades, leaving the market heavily dependent on China.
“It may become an American company,” chairman Robert Friedland said Monday in a Bloomberg TV interview. “Uncle Sam likes these companies to be domiciled in the United States.”
Syerston hosts one of the largest and highest-grade mineable scandium deposits within a Five Eyes jurisdiction and is being advanced as a scalable, long-life and low-cost source of primary scandium outside China, the company said.
“This is a landmark moment for Sunrise and Australia’s mining industry, and the financing aligns with the goals of the US-Australia Partnership on critical minerals,” Friedland said in a news release.
“The world has entered an era in which access to critical minerals will shape industrial strength, technology leadership and national security. Scandium is one of the clearest examples, supporting the technologies, industries and defence capabilities that will shape the coming decades,” Friedland said.
The USGS estimates that global scandium production totalled about 80 tonnes in 2025. Meanwhile, Sunrise Energy Metals’ Syerston project in New South Wales, designed to produce 60 tonnes annually and one of several proposed non-Chinese sources, has yet to begin construction.
