In a time when the Rare Earth Elements are making the news frequently, for their many new-found applications in power generation and electronics, mysterious thulium has remained well out of the limelight.

The metal has precious few uses, mostly specialty lasers and phosphor colorants, a trait that is shared among several other REEs anyway. However, its lack of remarkability is made worse by its also being the rarest of the bunch, with recovery rates well below 1% of the others. A study reportedly pegged world reserves at a paltry 100,000 tons… enough to make a big boat out of, perhaps, but even more telling is that refineries are only tapping into 50 tons of that total annually anyway.

Luckily, the price hikes that have affected the other rare earths have not had much of an impact on thulium, leaving it more affordable than some of its counterparts.