The Pentagon will invest more than half a billion dollars in a mining project in central western NSW that produces the rare mineral scandium, which is essential to the operation of military assets including fighter jets and spacecraft.

In what has been described as a ‘world-first’, Sunrise Energy Metals’ Syerston Scandium Project, located south-west of Dubbo, will receive a $560 million loan from the Pentagon. Previously, the US relied on Russia, China and Ukraine for scandium, which it has not mined since 1969.

In a televised roundtable with mining executives at the US State Department on Friday, President Donald Trump announced the loan to the Syerston project, calling it ‘the world’s first primary scandium mine’.

Sunrise Energy Metals said the project aimed to deliver ‘the world’s first primary source of mine-able, high-grade scandium’.

In February, the company’s chief executive, Sam Riggall, said the project, backed by mining billionaire Robert Friedland, was worth $US12 billion ($16.9 billion).

The historic loan comes off the back of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Trump signing a critical minerals deal in Washington last year.

Under the terms of the deal, the two countries will provide at least $US1 billion for each counterpart’s critical minerals projects.

Albanese also announced last year that Australia would create a $1.2 billion reserve of critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt and graphite.

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump last year signed a multi-billion-dollar critical minerals deal

Scandium is a critical component for war-fighting assets, including fighter jets

The site of the Syerston Scandium Project, expected to come online in 2028

Resources Minister Madeline King called the Sunrise loan a ‘significant vote of confidence’ in Australia’s rare minerals production capacity.

‘No one country alone can create secure end-to-end supply chains in critical minerals and rare earths,’ she said.

‘The Sunrise scandium project hosts the world’s largest and highest-grade known scandium resource, which has a range of vital aerospace, defence and clean energy applications.

‘In working together, Australian mining companies can create more jobs and investment opportunities here at home, and more jobs and investment in the United States.’

The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital said the scandium project would ‘support warfighting capabilities as well as other strategically important economic sectors’.

The US Department of Defense added that the loan would help build a ‘complete, US-aligned value chain from mine to finished metal’.

Production is scheduled to begin at the Syerston Project site in the first half of 2028 and is expected to have an initial capacity of 60 tonnes of scandium oxide a year.

US defence contractor Lockheed Martin has also signed a five-year agreement granting it the option to purchase up to 15 tonnes of scandium oxide from the project.

Resources Minister Madeline King said the deal was a ‘vote of confidence’ for Australia’s rare minerals sector

Trump pictured at last week’s roundtable, holding a gold replica of a deep-sea nodule 

Trump used the roundtable to proclaim that the US was reclaiming its place as ‘the minerals superpower of the world’.

‘Critical minerals are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles, and we want these essential products to be mined, refined and made right here in the USA,’ he said. 

‘We’re going to make sure the United States – not our adversaries – controls the supply chains of power and critical minerals,’ added Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.