Editing Group 3 element (section)

==Occurrence==
Scandium, yttrium, and lutetium tend to occur together with the other lanthanides (except short-lived [[promethium]]) in the Earth's crust, and are often harder to extract from their ores. The [[abundance of elements in Earth's crust]] for group 3 is quite low—all the elements in the group are uncommon, the most abundant being yttrium with abundance of approximately 30&nbsp;[[parts per million]] (ppm); the abundance of scandium is 16&nbsp;ppm, while that of lutetium is about 0.5&nbsp;ppm. For comparison, the abundance of copper is 50&nbsp;ppm, that of chromium is 160&nbsp;ppm, and that of molybdenum is 1.5&nbsp;ppm.<ref name="ffff">{{cite web|last = Barbalace|first = Kenneth|url = http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/periodic/|title = Periodic Table of Elements|publisher = Environmental Chemistry.com|access-date = 2007-04-14}}</ref>

Scandium is distributed sparsely and occurs in trace amounts in many [[mineral]]s.<ref>{{cite book| first = F.|last = Bernhard|chapter = Scandium mineralization associated with hydrothermal lazurite-quartz veins in the Lower Austroalpie Grobgneis complex, East Alps, Austria|title = Mineral Deposits in the Beginning of the 21st Century|year = 2001|isbn = 90-265-1846-3| publisher = Balkema| location = Lisse}}</ref> Rare minerals from Scandinavia<ref name="Thort">{{cite journal|title=Scandium – Mineraler I Norge |first=Roy |last=Kristiansen |journal=Stein |year=2003 |pages=14–23 |url=http://www.nags.net/Stein/2003/Sc-minerals.pdf |language=no |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008054147/http://www.nags.net/Stein/2003/Sc-minerals.pdf |archive-date=October 8, 2010 }}</ref> and [[Madagascar]]<ref name="Mada">{{cite journal|journal=Geological Journal|volume = 22|page= 253|year =1987|title = Mineralized pegmatites in Africa|first1 = O.|last1 = von Knorring|last2=Condliffe|first2=E.| issue=S2 |doi = 10.1002/gj.3350220619| bibcode=1987GeolJ..22S.253V }}</ref> such as [[gadolinite]], [[euxenite]], and [[thortveitite]] are the only known concentrated sources of this element, the latter containing up to 45% of scandium in the form of [[scandium(III) oxide]].<ref name="Thort"/> Yttrium has the same trend in occurrence places; it is found in lunar rock samples collected during the [[United States|American]] [[Apollo Project]] in a relatively high content as well.<ref>{{cite book|title = Guide to the Elements|chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/guidetoelements00stwe|chapter-url-access = registration|edition = Revised|first = Albert|last = Stwertka|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 1998|chapter = Yttrium|pages = [https://archive.org/details/guidetoelements00stwe/page/115 115–116]|isbn = 0-19-508083-1}}</ref>

[[File:Monazit - Mosambik, O-Afrika.jpg|thumb|alt=Piece of a yellow-gray rock|[[Monazite]], the most important lutetium ore]]
The principal commercially viable ore of lutetium is the rare-earth [[phosphate]] mineral [[monazite]], (Ce,La,etc.)PO<sub>4</sub>, which contains 0.003% of the element. The main mining areas are [[China]], [[United States]], [[Brazil]], [[India]], [[Sri Lanka]] and [[Australia]]. Pure lutetium [[metal]] is one of the rarest and most expensive of the rare-earth metals with the price about US$10,000/kg, or about one-fourth that of [[gold]].<ref>{{cite news| publisher = USGS| title =Rare-Earth Metals| author = Hedrick, James B. | access-date = 2009-06-06| url =http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/rare_earths/740798.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| title =Rare Earth Elements|author1=Castor, Stephen B.  |author2=Hedrick, James B. | access-date = 2009-06-06| url =http://www.rareelementresources.com/i/pdf/RareEarths-CastorHedrickIMAR7.pdf}}</ref>