This post was originally published on this site.The Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) announced Friday a $400 million conditional loan commitment to Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX: SRL) to build out the company’s scandium operations in New South Wales, Australia.  The company is backed by mining billionaire Robert Friedland, who said the Syerston project “will be the world’s first source of primary mine supply for scandium end-users”.    Scandium is currently harvested through byproducts of other industrial or resource extraction processes. No primary mine-source scandium supply exists globally, and foreign competitors dominate the supply side, accounting for approximately 80% of global mining production and nearly 100% of scandium processing.   With these funds, alongside...