The United States is providing a conditional loan of 400 million dollars to Australian miner Sunrise Energy Metals to develop the Syerston scandium project in New South Wales. If completed, this project would be the world’s first primary scandium mine, extracting the metal as its main product rather than as a byproduct. The funding falls under the US-Australia Framework for Securing of Supply in Mining Critical Minerals signed in October 2025, which commits a total of 2 billion dollars to secure critical mineral supply chains. China currently controls approximately 70 percent of global rare earth mining and over 90 percent of processing capacity, pushing Western governments to diversify their sources. The project is part of a broader set of initiatives including Arafura’s Nolans rare earths project in Australia’s Northern Territory.
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