You would think that a metal as strong as steel but light as aluminum would make both of these obsolete but then rarity rears its head and spoils the fun. Scandium is actually not that rare but it is hard to find. It just doesn’t aggregate anywhere in particular. A bucketful of earth from an especially productive patch of land or one out of your backyard will have a little scandium in more or less equal measure. Too little and too spread out to be of any use to anyone it might as well not exist. What little is recovered (and little is not a metaphor: world production is absolutely paltry at somewhere around five tons!) comes by way of recovery as a trace contaminant from mining other metals, especially rare earths.

Scandium is a beautiful pale yellow color with a laundry list of desirable properties. It’s a damn shame it’s so hard to get. Oh well, all the better to make it more prized, right?

Measures 15x8x2.94mm