Australian scandium miner Sunrise Energy Metals has secured a $400 million conditional loan commitment from the US Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital, according to an official announcement from the defense agency.
The financing is structured as long-term debt and carries conditions typical of strategic capital deployments by the Pentagon's emerging investment vehicle. The Office of Strategic Capital, established to fund domestic production of materials critical to military supply chains, has identified scandium as a strategic mineral whose domestic supply chain the US currently lacks.
Scandium is a lightweight rare-earth element used in high-strength aerospace alloys, jet engines, and missile guidance systems. Current US military applications rely on imports from Russia and China, both of which have restricted exports of the material in recent years. Sunrise Energy Metals is developing a scandium extraction project in Australia designed to produce the metal for both civilian aerospace and defense applications.
The $400 million commitment represents one of the Office of Strategic Capital's largest single deployments since its formal launch in 2024. The office has committed roughly $5 billion across multiple critical-mineral projects, with individual awards ranging from $50 million to $400 million depending on project scale and strategic importance. Other recipients include domestic nickel miners and rare-earth processing facilities.
Conditions on the loan likely include production timelines, domestic supply guarantees to the Pentagon, and reporting on progress toward operational capacity. These terms are standard in the office's lending agreements and are designed to ensure capital deployed to critical-mineral producers delivers measurable increases in domestic output within defined timeframes.
The loan commitment does not require congressional approval but is subject to ongoing oversight by the Department of Defense inspector general. Sunrise Energy Metals will need to meet initial milestones to draw on the full amount.
At $400 million, the commitment is four times the median size of Office of Strategic Capital awards to date. The Sunrise project must meet its production targets to determine whether the office achieves its mandate to reduce US reliance on adversary-controlled mineral supplies.
