Production
The most available element in group 3 is yttrium, with annual production of 8,900 tonnes in 2010. Yttrium is mostly produced as oxide, by a single country, China (99%). Lutetium and scandium are also mostly obtained as oxides, and their annual production by 2001 was about 10 and 2 tonnes, respectively.
Group 3 elements are mined only as a byproduct from the extraction of other elements. The metallic elements are extremely rare; the production of metallic yttrium is about a few tonnes, and that of scandium is in the order of 10 kg per year; production of lutetium is not calculated, but it is certainly small. The elements, after purification from other rare earth metals, are isolated as oxides; the oxides are converted to fluorides during reactions with hydrofluoric acid. The resulting fluorides are reduced with alkaline earth metals or alloys of the metals; metallic calcium is used most frequently. For example:
- Sc2O3 + 3 HF → 2 ScF3 + 3 H2O
- 2 ScF3 + 3 Ca → 3 CaF2 + 2 Sc
Read more about this topic: Group 3 Element
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)