Sunrise raises $46m for world’s largest scandium mine

Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX: SRL) has successfully raised major capital with its latest share placement to fund pre-construction activities at the Syerston scandium project in NSW.

The raise follows an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE), released in September, that confirms the project as the world’s largest and highest-grade scandium resource currently under development, with a global resource of 19,007t at an average grade of 414g/t.

Scandium, considered a critical mineral, plays a crucial role in multiple high-technology applications in clean energy, aerospace and automotive sectors as well as defence and telecommunications use.

The global scandium market faces significant supply challenges as production is dominated by China, Russia and Ukraine. Global production is dismal — estimated to be between 30-40tpa, according to US Geological Survey.

Demand is expected to rise to more than 117tpa by 2026 due to the increased use of scandium-aluminium alloys and solid oxide fuel cells, according to NioCorp.

The Syerston project offers a new stable supply that can stimulate the use of scandium in a wider range of new technologies and Sunrise is optimistic about the near-term outlook for the mineral.

Sunrise managing director Sam Riggal says the influx of fresh capital allows the company to start work on delivering a new primary source of scandium at a time of significant supply risk given disruption to international trade flows in the metal.

“This raising and the potential proceeds from the future exercise of options, combined with the letter of conditional funding support from US EXIM Bank for up to $103m [US$67m], gives us excellent line of sight to a comprehensive financing package for the Syerston project,” he said.

Scandium in economic quantities that are viable for extraction are very rare. NSW has one of the highest concentrations of known scandium globally, according to the NSW Government.