Occurrence
| Occurrence and Production of Scandium |
| Occurrence
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| Scandium is distributed sparsely on earth, occurring only as trace quantities in many minerals. Rare minerals from Scandinavia and Madagascar, such as thortveitite, euxenite, and gadolinite are the only known concentrated sources of this element (which is never found as a free metal). It is also found in residues that remain after tungsten is extracted from wolframite, and from ores after uranium and thorium have been extracted. |
| Scandium is more common in the sun and certain stars than on Earth. Scandium is only the 50th most common element on earth (35th most abundant in the Earth's crust), but it is the 23rd most common element in the sun. |
| The blue colour of the aquamarine variety of beryl is thought to be caused by scandium impurities in it. |