Sunrise Energy delivers feasibility study for Friedland-backed scandium project

Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL), the Australian scandium miner backed by Robert Friedland, announced Tuesday it has completed the feasibility study for the Syerston project, demonstrating a pathway to 60 tonnes per year of scandium oxide (Sc2O3) capacity to meet growing global demand.  

The feasibility study confirms a capital cost of $120 million and an average life-of-mine direct, site-level cash operating costs of $534 per kilogram of Sc2O3 over a 32-year mine life in Phase 1 of the project. 

The $120 million development costs are to produce 60 tonnes per year of scandium oxide with C1 cash operating costs of $534/kg – positioning Sunrise as a globally competitive, low-cost producer, it said.  

Syerston was one of the Australian projects classified as being of great importance to national security by both the U.S. and Australia during President Trump’s meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in October 2025.  

Scandium is a strategic metal for strengthening aluminum alloys used in aerospace, defense, and automotive industries, and also in solid oxide fuel cells powering AI data centres.  

With China controlling 80-85% of global supply and now restricting exports, Western customers are seeking alternative supply options.   

The Syerston project represents one of the few significant non-Chinese sources of scalable supply in development today that can meet this immediate strategic need, the company said.  

Located about 450 km west of Sydney, the Syerston project holds one of the world’s largest and highest-grade deposits of scandium. A 2025 resource update showed it has nearly 46 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 414 parts per million scandium. 

“There are few examples better than scandium to demonstrate the importance of critical minerals in today’s geopolitical landscape,” Sunrise’s co-chairman Friedland said in a news release. “Whether in rapidly deployable power generation for AI data centres, defence-sector aerospace alloys or as the foundation for a new generation of 6G wireless communications architecture or solid-state memory chips, scandium is indispensable.”  

“We find ourselves at an extraordinary juncture in history, where access to a handful of metals is directing one of the most rapid and aggressive global public policy responses seen since war time, and one that is likely to be sustained for many years,” CEO Sam Riggall said. 

“The completion of the Feasibility Study marks a pivotal moment… for the Western world’s ability to access a metal that is rapidly becoming indispensable.”