Pricey and exotic sounding, thulium’s 15 minutes of fame may never come. Without any highly desirable chemical traits and also its extreme difficulty in extraction keep this one firmly in the list of most obscure entries in the periodic table.

Given the high cost of production and that it belongs in the “rare earth element” family one might be excused for thinking that thulium is extremely rare in nature. It isn’t. The cost to make thulium metal is high primarily due to it being so similar to the other rare earths (which are invariably always found mixed with) that it takes complex and lengthy processes to isolate. That and, again, that there aren’t many buyers looking for it in the first place.

Now that Luciteria has been acquiring thulium by the kilogram it may well be the case that this newfound demand channel is sufficient to affect the price and availability of this sleepy commodity. And that would be great news as far as we’re concerned!

Within our premium line of density cubes, thulium was a late addition given some unique metallurgical characteristics that made the normal polishing techniques inadequate to achieve a mirror-like finish. It turns out that the ultrapure metal tends to have a rather coarse metal grain which “catches” in the grit of the polishing machine resulting in chips and gouges that ruin the job. Unfortunately, our supplier did not share technical details on how this was overcome but, at least, the problem was eventually solved though - of course - not without significant costs to research the solution…. all reflected in the rather steep price of ownership!