By Melissa Blewitt

A Feasibility Study investigating the potential to produce a high-purity scandium oxide product in Australia by Sunrise Energy Metals is nearing completion.
The company recently doubled the contained scandium metal within its Syerston Scandium Project near Fifield.
Following a step out drilling campaign, the resource has increased to 19,007 tonnes of contained scandium at an average grade of 414 grams per tonne. Over 90 per cent is also now in the higher confidence measured and indicated categories.
The contained metal in the higher-grade zones has grown 160 per cent to 1,155 tonnes of contained scandium at an average grade of 665g/t. Over 99 per cent of that resource is now in the measured and indicated categories. Mineralisation extends from surface to 35 metres depth, providing options for expandable, low-cost mining and rapid development.
“We’re delighted that the world’s largest and highest-grade primary scandium deposit is now estimated to be even bigger than previously thought following our most recent drilling,” Sunrise Energy Metals CEO, Sam Riggall, commented.
“Global supply remains tight since China’s export controls were imposed in April 2025, positioning Syerston as a strategically important source for future scandium supply.
“The Mineral Resource Estimate has increased substantially as a result of the targeted drilling campaign, proving up additional zones of high-grade mineralisation supporting decades of future production. Our focus now turns to completing the Feasibility Study and evaluating various financing options for the Project.”
Scandium is integral to solid oxide fuel cells, a clean energy technology used for power generation, electronics to improve semiconductor performance and advanced communication technologies including 5G.
“The Syerston Scandium Project will bolster the supply of one of the most important rare earth metals at a time when supply disruptions are becoming the norm,” Sunrise Energy Metals Limited Co-Chairman Robert Friedland explained.
“The world we knew – built on globalized and integrated supply chains for strategic metals – is past, perhaps forever.
“Geopolitical competition over key technologies using these metals requires a complete rebuilding of the world’s metal supply chains. This is not just an industrial imperative.
“It is an imperative that strives for a safer and more balanced approach to world affairs, one built on diversified and reliable supply chains stretching back to the mines that have, for millennia, produced the metals that are catalysts for human progress.”