TheChek News Flow

Sunrise Energy shares soar after Trump administration provides $400mn loan to develop scandium project

Donald Trump’s administration has provided a major funding boost to Australia’s hopes of unlocking non-Chinese supplies of a rare earth used in energy and defence applications with a $400mn loan to a Robert Friedland-backed company. 

Shares in Sunrise Energy, which is building a scandium mine about 360km (225 miles) west of Sydney, surged 18 per cent after the conditional US funding was announced on Monday. The rise capped a huge jump in the value of the Sydney-listed company in the past year to A$3.2bn (US$2.2bn).

The Office of Strategic Capital, part of the US Department of Defense, said the loan was conditional on the Australian company meeting specific legal and technical requirements and included a right of first offer on Sunrise’s output. 

It is one of the most significant moves in the growing partnership between Australia’s mining industry and Washington, which has indicated that a supply line of non-Chinese rare earths and other critical minerals is essential for US defence and industrial companies. 

The Syerston project is being developed by Sunrise in Parkes, a town in western New South Wales best known for one of the world’s largest Elvis Presley festivals and for the large radio telescope used to help broadcast the first moon landing in 1969 around the world. 

The growth potential of a scandium mine — with production due to begin in the second half of 2028 — could boost the town’s growth prospects. Rio Tinto owns another prospect nearby that is part of its titanium division, which has been put up for review.

Scandium is used for a variety of applications, ranging from the manufacture of golf clubs and racing bike frames to a tracing agent used in oil refineries and ultra-thin coatings on semiconductors used in smartphones. 

One of 17 metallic elements called rare earths, scandium is mainly used as an alloy to strengthen aluminium for automotive and aerospace components and is a critical component for chips used in smartphones to enable radio-frequency selection.

It is also used in hydrogen fuel cell technology, as the metal improves electrical conductivity.

Friedland, the co-chair and biggest investor in Sunrise, said that the loan represented “a landmark moment” for the Australian mining industry and thanked Trump and the US defence department. 

“The world has entered an era in which access to critical minerals will shape industrial strength, technology leadership and national security. Scandium is one of the clearest examples, supporting the technologies, industries and defence capabilities that will shape the coming decades,” he said in a statement. 

Sunrise also said it was preparing to list on a US securities exchange in a move that would require shareholder, court and regulatory approvals.

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China bypasses shipping chokepoints with ‘Ice Silk Road’ through Arctic

First regular container service between Europe and Far East halves voyage times to about 20 days

The Arctic is emerging as a viable alternative to the world’s traditional shipping routes as melting polar ice shortens the journey between Europe and Asia and vessels seek to avoid maritime chokepoints.

Sea Legend, a Chinese container shipping company focusing on the Turkish and North African markets, will this week launch the first regular container shipping service through the Arctic.

The weekly service will skirt the north Russian coast on its journey between Ningbo on China’s east coast and Felixstowe in the UK. The company has branded the service the “Ice Silk Road” in reference to the Silk Road trading route that once connected China and Europe.

The voyage will cut the usual 40-day sailing time between the two ports by about half, depending on the conditions in the Arctic Circle. The move follows a record 23 transits through the Northern Sea Route last summer, up from 15 voyages in 2024.

Sea ice melts far enough south in summer to allow ships to pass without needing icebreaker capabilities.

Despite geopolitical rivalry over control of the region, shipping companies are becoming increasingly interested in the route as a way to avoid chokepoints such as the Bab al-Mandab Strait into the Red Sea, where the Houthis, an Iranian-backed military group, renewed threats last month.

Houthi militants said on July 23 they had attacked two Saudi Arabian tankers in the Red Sea, which sent oil prices back above $100 a barrel.

“There’s been a definite increase in traffic through the Arctic and Northern Sea Route,” said Rahul Khanna, global head of marine risk consulting at the insurer Allianz. “Vessels and shipowners now see it as more of an opportunity, first to save a lot of time and cost” but also to “take out all the geopolitical chokepoints and conflict zones”, he said.

The Northern Sea Route is broken up into 28 sections with different guidelines set by the Rosatom-controlled Northern Sea Route administration depending on the varying ice conditions. The Russian state-controlled company issues permits to sail through the area.

Despite Maersk sending the first container ship through the Arctic route between Vladivostok and St Petersburg in 2018, the Danish shipping line and many other European companies have pledged not to use the route for fear of damaging the delicate Arctic ecosystem.

Arctic sea ice during the peak winter period was down 5.8 per cent between 2024 and 2025 — the biggest drop on record, according to a recent paper by University of Southampton researchers. Peak sea ice recovered slightly this year but was the second-lowest extent ever recorded, the paper said.

“The impact of global warming in the Arctic is quite staggering,” said former Canadian environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who is sailing across the Arctic to raise awareness of issues affecting the far north. “Climate change will enhance security risks in the Arctic, particularly if there are more and more vessels in the Arctic which are not necessarily from Arctic nations.”

Reasons European companies were staying away from the route included relations with Russia and climate change, said Malte Humpert, an expert in Arctic shipping at High North News, which is run by Norway’s Nord University.

The interest in using the Arctic region for shipping has also been shown in a rise in orders for ice-class vessels. There were 167 constructed last year, the highest level in more than a decade, while a further 164 are due to be built this year, according to maritime data company Veson Nautical.

However, the Arctic still presents critical challenges to seafarers who need experience navigating ice fields often without GPS, which can fail to work that far north.

“There is always the risk of oil spill or pollution and you are far from search and rescue. But you can also argue that you are reducing CO₂ emissions by going the shorter route,” Humpert said.

Ships must also abide by the International Maritime Organization’s Polar Code that sets strict safety and environmental protection standards for vessels.

“There is a big chance of vessels getting stuck if no icebreaker facilities are available,” said Khanna, who added that there had been a rise in enquiries about using the Northern Sea Route over the past five years. “If we have a casualty in the Arctic, we have limited salvage, assistance, firefighting or rescue. To deal with a contingency or casualty in the Arctic is much more difficult.”

Allianz analysis shows that there have been more than 500 reported shipping incidents in the Arctic Circle over the past 10 years, with machinery damage or failure responsible for almost half the total.