Friedland talks scandium and AI metals - what it means for AUZ

Mining Billionaire and possibly the greatest presenter we have seen Robert Friedland just did an epic presentation at the Denver Gold Mining Forum Americas.

Check out the full presentation here: The AI Supply Chain Is a Copper Story

Friedland is like an Elon Musk to the mining industry.

He is the founder of $17BN Ivanhoe Mines and has been behind two giant copper discoveries.

He is also chairman and major shareholder of $3.7BN Sunrise Energy Metals…

Whose scandium project sits next door to, and on the same geological structure as, our critical minerals Investment Australian Mines (ASX: AUZ).

Sunrise was the best performing mining stock in the world over the last ~18 months - Friedland was quick to point it out saying:

“So if you bought this stock a year ago, you’re up 500%. I guess that’s better than leaving your money in the bank, and up about fiftyfold in the last two years.

That’s the best performing mining share in the world.

And I didn’t have to go around doing dog and pony shows or going up and down elevators talking to hedge funds named after Greek gods or go to conferences”

(nice)

Friedland (in true Friedland fashion) also highlighted how scandium amongst a few critical minerals:

“That scandium metal is orders of magnitude more important than gold.”

Because of:

• Its use in AI data centres and robotics driving demand for niche metals like scandium
• China restricting exports of those metals (scandium since April 2025)
• The West racing to localise its critical minerals supply chains

Friedland's summary of the West's need to localise supply chains is really solid.

(It really is one of the best mining presentations we have seen in a while - again, check it out the full presentation here)

Why does the presentation matter for our Investment AUZ?

Because AUZ owns one of the highest grade scandium resources in the Western world right next door to Friedland’s Sunrise Energy Metals.

And we have Friedland presenting to and educating investors all over the world about scandium.

This was actually one of the reasons why we Invested in AUZ - because The US Department of War, Lockheed Martin and Robert Friedland have been talking about the need for scandium:

(source - Our Initiation note)

Which should make AUZ an easier company to understand for the market.

Right now, AUZ is capped at ~$66M, Sunrise is capped at ~3.7BN.

While SRL is more advanced in terms of studies and permitting, we think that there is plenty of opportunity for AUZ to catch up and hopefully close some of its valuation gap..

As we said above, AUZ sits next door, along the same orebody to $3.9BN capped Sunrise Energy Metals.

(source)

AUZ’s resource grade is slightly higher than Sunrise overall, although Sunrise’s project is more advanced:

source)(source)(source)(source)

Because both projects share the same orebody, we think if AUZ can take the same steps as SRL, that the valuation gap could close, here is a comparison of the recent studies for each:

(source)

Scandium macro is heating up too

There is also an interesting demand side story playing out for scandium.

$117BN NYSE listed Bloom Energy is running hard over in the US.

Bloom’s run is important because its core tech makes fuel cells that ~10% scandium oxide (locked by Bloom’s patents). (source)

Bloom posted its first ever US$1BN+ quarter, has a US$20BN+ backlog that management says it is doubling its manufacturing capacity to a ~2GW per year run-rate by the end of this year. (source)

Each gigawatt of Bloom fuel cells needs ~25-60 tonnes of scandium. (source)

The entire global production capacity was ~80 tonnes of scandium last year. (source)

At the moment, Bloom consumes ~74% of the world's scandium making fuel cells that power AI data centres (servicing customers like Amazon and Oracle).

Check out our deep dive into Bloom’s growth and what it means for scandium here.

What else do we want to see AUZ deliver?

Drilling to grow the scandium resource

We want to see AUZ drill out and grow its scandium resources - so that the market can start to make stronger comparisons between AUZ and Sunrise’s asset.

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

🔲 Drilling approvals

🔲 Drilling commences

🔲 Drilling results

Progress the scandium project through to development

We want to see AUZ progress its scandium project through to being development ready.

The next major catalyst being a Pre Feasibility Study (PFS)

Here are the milestones we are tracking:

✅ PFS formally commenced and fast-tracked

🔄 Mine optimisation, metallurgical testwork, infrastructure

🔄 Assessment of 180tpa scale-up case

🔲 PFS completed (~Q1/Q2 2027)

Commercial progress for scandium asset

We also want to see AUZ execute the Sunrise playbook and convert:

🔄 Offtake / strategic partner discussions

🔲 First offtake, MOU or government-linked funding

Corporate - progress toward a US facing listing

This one is all about building up the company to get listed on a major US stock exchange OR become a takeover target for one of the big US listed critical minerals players (OR SPAC’s).

This one is out of AUZ’s control to some extent but we would like to see some progress toward a listing.