US$400 million U.S. Government financing commitment marks major milestone for Syerston Scandium Project
10 August 2026
Sunrise Energy Metals has announced that the U.S. Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) has confirmed a conditional commitment of up to US$400 million (~A$570 million) in long-term debt financing to support development of the Syerston Scandium Project in New South Wales.
The proposed 25-year facility represents a significant milestone for Syerston as Sunrise advances the project towards a Final Investment Decision (FID). Sunrise is targeting a positive FID recommendation to its Board in the second half of 2026, with first production targeted for the second half of 2028.
Syerston hosts one of the world’s largest and highest-grade mineable scandium deposits and is being developed as a large-scale source of primary scandium outside China. Scandium has growing strategic importance across applications including solid oxide fuel cells for AI data centres, lightweight aluminium-scandium alloys for aerospace and defence, and advanced semiconductor technologies.
Scandium has growing strategic importance across advanced technology and manufacturing applications.
More than a decade of technology development
Clean TeQ Water has been involved in the development of the Syerston process flowsheet since 2014 through extensive piloting, testwork and engineering.
In January 2026, Clean TeQ Water was awarded an engineering contract to update and refine key elements of the Syerston design as part of the project’s investment readiness work. This included the continuous Resin-in-Pulp (cRIP) circuit, underpinned by Moving Bed Ion Exchange (MBIX) technology, together with the refinery design.
MBIX enables continuous ion exchange and has been developed for the efficient recovery and purification of target ions from complex process streams. The technology platform has applications across critical minerals, uranium and water treatment, where continuous counter-current operation can provide high stage efficiency, improved resin utilisation and concentrated product streams.
Note: The OSC commitment is conditional and non-binding and remains subject to due diligence, negotiation and execution of definitive financing documentation, satisfaction of conditions precedent and relevant approvals.