Lutetium is the most expensive element in the rare earths series. This is in part due to its rarity. A hundred pounds of monazite, its chief ore, are needed to get barely an ounce of this metal. But more than that it's the sheer difficulty of extricating it from its rare earth buddies with whom it's always found. And of all the REs lutetium is the most difficult to separate with there being literally hundreds of steps to get from the raw ore to the finished metal at a purity of 99.95%. Let's say that again, hundreds of steps! That's why it's so damn expensive.

In our offering for this element you will receive a chunky piece of 99.9% pure lutetium weighing about an ounce - to make it that much easier to think of the hundred pounds of rock that it took to make. Each sample was chosen to highlight this metal’s character and color which could be described as dark and moody (if that makes any sort of sense). Of course, each cube comes encased in a 50mm hand polished Lucite acrylic cube that will remain optically clear indefinitely.