Mentioned:
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The Department of War is preparing to pour nearly half a billion dollars of debt financing into a scandium company in Australia. But, why?

What’s happening:

  • The United States Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital has committed $400M USD in conditional funding to Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX: SRL) to build out their scandium operations at their Syerston Scandium project located in Australia

Why it matters:

  • This is the first time ever that the Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital has provided a conditional funding commitment to a publicly traded company focused solely on scandium

Going deeper:

  • Sunrise Energy Metals’ Syerston Scandium Project is widely considered to be one of the world’s largest scandium deposits and notably led to a supply deal with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) in which Sunrise Energy Metals will supply them with up to 15 tonnes of scandium oxide annually
  • Billionaire mining entrepreneur and founder of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) Robert Friedland is one of the single largest shareholders of Sunrise Energy Metals
  • The United States Department of War has been making a flurry of new funding commitments through both debt and equity lately, including a $725M USD conditional loan to Energy Fuels (NYSE: UUUU) to accelerate the build out of their rare earth processing capabilities as well as a $25M USD investment into ReElement Technologies to expand their critical minerals refining facility

The intrigue: