Background |  Name |   Sources |  Uses |  Toxicity | Substitutes and Alternative Sources

In 1879 a Swedish chemist named Lars Fredrik Nilson was looking for rare earth elements in the minerals euxenite and gadolinite when he discovered erbium and ytterbium; scandium was later separated from the ytterbium. At that time these minerals had only been found in Scandinavia, and the element was named after the region. Scandium is a soft, silvery-white metallic element with an atomic number 21. It easily oxidizes and tarnishes to pink or yellow. When placed in water, a chemical reaction occurs which releases hydrogen. Scandium has some characteristics that are similar to the rare earth elements, and is often classified as a member of the group. The smaller size of its ion allows it to react chemically more like aluminum, magnesium and zirconium.

Scandium is more common in the sun and stars than on Earth. It is relatively rare on Earth, although it is more abundant than boron. Scandium is widely dispersed in minute quantities in the Earth’s crust. It is especially found in uranium minerals and trace amounts occur in iron and magnesium rich rocks. One of the few minerals having a notable scandium content is thortveitite. But occurrences are rarely large enough to be exploited as an ore. Other rare minerals have scandium, bazzite, kolbeckite, ixiolite-Sc, perrierite-Sc, and magbasite. Norway, Madagascar, and the United States have thortveitite which contains from 44 to 48% scandium oxide (ScO₂).

Scandium is very difficult to reduce to its pure state. In fact, it was not isolated in its pure form until 1937 and the first pound of pure scandium was not produced until 1960.