Washington just bankrolled the world's first primary scandium mine

Sunrise Energy Metals shares jumped as much as 29% after the US Department of War's Office of Strategic Capital offered up to $400 million in conditional debt financing for the Syerston project in New South Wales, according to Bloomberg. Lockheed Martin already has a deal locked in for 25% of the mine's output over its first five years, which tells you the Pentagon isn't funding a speculative junior miner, it's securing a defense input it currently can't get outside China. The loan is non-binding and gated behind equity raises and binding offtake agreements, with first production targeted for the second half of 2028. This is the fourth critical-minerals commitment from the same office in recent weeks, following a $1.4 billion loan to Sila Nanotechnologies and $150 million to Niron Magnetics, as S&P Global has detailed, and it confirms Washington is now running an industrial policy for allied mineral supply rather than a series of one-off deals.