Clean TeQ Secures A$5.4 Million Engineering Contract for Syerston Scandium Project in Australia

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 4, Clean TeQ Water was awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) and early engineering contract by Sunrise Energy Metals for the scandium recovery circuit at the Syerston Scandium Project, with a total contract value of up to approximately A$5.4 million. The FEED scope is valued at approximately A$2 million and will be executed on a rate-based basis; approximately A$3.4 million is allocated for long-lead delivery items. The contract covers the continuous resin-in-pulp (cRIP) circuit and the downstream scandium refining facility.

This contract represents a further expansion of the engineering work undertaken by both parties in January this year. At that time, Clean TeQ was awarded an engineering contract valued at A$665,160 to update the cRIP and refining circuit designs from the 2016 and 2025 feasibility studies and advance the design work to a level supporting the project's final investment decision. The addition of this FEED and early engineering contract extends the scope of work from design updates further into detailed front-end engineering and long-lead equipment preparation.

The scandium recovery process at Syerston utilizes Clean TeQ's MBIX moving bed ion exchange technology. In the process flowsheet, after ore beneficiation and leaching, the scandium-bearing solution enters the continuous resin-in-pulp circuit before proceeding to the scandium refining stage. Earlier this year, Sunrise separately engaged GR Engineering Services to advance the FEED for the beneficiation and leaching circuits, with Clean TeQ responsible for the ion exchange and refining sections, forming an engineering design chain across the different process areas of the processing plant.

Sunrise currently plans to produce approximately 60 tonnes of scandium oxide per year in Phase 1 of Syerston, while also studying the addition of a second production line of 120 tonnes per year, which would increase potential total capacity to 180 tonnes per year. As of July, the company confirmed that FEED for the Phase 1 60-tonne-per-year option remains on track, targeting commercial production in 2028.

Project financing has also entered a substantive advancement phase. In August, the U.S. Office of Strategic Capital provided a conditional long-term loan commitment of up to US$400 million to the Syerston Project; Sunrise had previously also received a financing indication of up to US$67 million from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The project's latest capital expenditure estimate has been revised upward from the earlier approximately US$120 million to approximately A$450–475 million, with current work priorities including FEED, permitting, long-lead equipment procurement, and construction readiness.