The small town of Fifield in central New South Wales, a six-hour drive west of Sydney and home to just 130 residents, hardly sounds like a place that would be making international headlines. However, it has been catapulted to fame and now finds itself at the centre of a major plan by Donald Trump and his government.
US Loan Backs Scandium Production
The US Department of War, headed by Pete Hegseth, has committed to making a conditional loan of $400million (£296.2million) to Sunrise Energy Metals, an Australian mining company that hopes to deliver the world's first supply of a key mineral outside of China.
Scandium – a silvery-white transition metal with a low density, like aluminium – is listed as a critical mineral in both Australia and the US, heralded for its strategic importance in aerospace and defence, including the development of the most advanced fighter jets.
Fifield's Rich Mining History
Fifield is renowned for its alluvial gold and platinum deposits, as well as for the companies trying to find their sources. The historical field yielded roughly 650kg of platinum, along with smaller amounts of gold.
The interest in scandium has surged in recent months, driven by massive increases in defence spending across North America, Europe and Asia and an investment boom in power-hungry AI data centres. Alongside this, China’s sweeping export controls on rare earth elements, including scandium, have contributed to a persistent supply shortage on the global market, pushing up prices.
The sharp tightening of Chinese export curbs is a strategic attempt to ensure the West remains entirely dependent on Beijing, effectively choking off the supply of rare minerals needed to keep the American defence industry running.
Small Market, High Stakes
However, the market for scandium remains incredibly small. According to statistics from the US Geological Survey (USGS), the world consumed only 60 tonnes of the metal in 2025 - roughly the same as 40 average family cars.
As scandium is rarely found in large quantities, miners have historically only extracted it as an afterthought during titanium processing. Sunrise Energy Metals is breaking that trend with a high-grade deposit that could make it the world’s first primary source of the metal. Producing 60 tonnes of high-purity scandium annually by 2028 would meet current global needs, with scope to add another 120 tonnes over time.
Deal and Risks
Under a new deal unveiled by Donald Trump at a Washington critical-minerals summit last week, the US government has secured first rights to buy scandium from Sunrise Energy Metals, with production set for late 2028.
However, while Chinese export restrictions are keeping prices high for now, Beijing could lift those limits at any moment, flooding the market with cheap scandium and wiping out Western profits. China has pulled this trick before with lithium, aiming to crush foreign rivals.
To protect against these price crashes, the Pentagon handed another Australian miner, Lynas, a $96millon (£71million) deal with guaranteed price floors. Sunrise has not been given that safety net, and instead, Washington's multi-million-dollar loan has to be repaid and comes with strict conditions, including building a specialised refining plant on US soil.
Local help is coming from the NSW Government, which is waiving royalties for five years. However, with massive upfront costs and Beijing constantly threatening to undercut the market, experts have warned that the US and Australia may need to introduce price floors to stop the vital supply chain from collapsing.
