[10] Scandium is present in most of the deposits of rare-earth and uranium compounds, but it is extracted from these ores in only a few mines worldwide.

[19] Rare minerals from Scandinavia[20] and Madagascar[21] such as thortveitite, euxenite, and gadolinite are the only known concentrated sources of this element.

[citation needed] Since then, many other countries have built scandium-producing facilities, including 5 tonnes/year (7.5 tonnes/year Sc2O3) by Nickel Asia Corporation and Sumitomo Metal Mining in the Philippines.

to raise $1 billion[26] toward opening a niobium mine at its Elk Creek site in southeast Nebraska,[27] which may be able to produce as much as 95 tonnes of scandium oxide annually.

[32] Madagascar and the Iveland-Evje region in Norway have the only deposits of minerals with high scandium content, thortveitite (Sc,Y)2(Si2O7), but these are not being exploited.

[30] The absence of reliable, secure, stable, long-term production has limited the commercial applications of scandium.

[33] Scandium-stabilized zirconia enjoys a growing market demand for use as a high-efficiency electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells.

[38] Scandium forms a series of organometallic compounds with cyclopentadienyl ligands (Cp), similar to the behavior of the lanthanides.

This material adopts a sheet-like structure that exhibits extensive bonding between the scandium(II) centers.

[42][4][43][44] Dmitri Mendeleev, who is referred to as the father of the periodic table, predicted the existence of an element ekaboron, with an atomic mass between 40 and 48 in 1869.

[52][53] The main application of scandium by weight is in aluminium-scandium alloys for minor aerospace industry components.

[55] A fine dispersion of nano scale precipitate can be achieved via heat treatment that can also strengthen the alloys through order hardening.

[60] Some items of sports equipment, which rely on lightweight high-performance materials, have been made with scandium-aluminium alloys, including baseball bats,[61] tent poles and bicycle frames and components.

The American firearm manufacturing company Smith & Wesson produces semi-automatic pistols and revolvers with frames of scandium alloy and cylinders of titanium or carbon steel.

[63][64] Since 2013, Apworks GmbH, a spin-off of Airbus, have marketed a high strength Scandium containing aluminium alloy processed using metal 3D-Printing (Laser Powder Bed Fusion) under the trademark Scalmalloy which claims very high strength & ductility.

[65] The first scandium-based metal-halide lamps were patented by General Electric and made in North America, although they are now produced in all major industrialized countries.

Approximately 20 kg of scandium (as Sc2O3) is used annually in the United States for high-intensity discharge lamps.

This lamp is a white-light source with high color rendering index that sufficiently resembles sunlight to allow good color-reproduction with TV cameras.

[68] Dentists use erbium-chromium-doped yttrium-scandium-gallium garnet (Er,Cr:YSGG) lasers for cavity preparation and in endodontics.

[71] Scandium has been proposed for use in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) as a dopant in the electrolyte material, typically zirconia (ZrO₂).

[72] Scandium oxide (Sc₂O₃) is one of several possible additives to enhance the ionic conductivity of the zirconia, improving the overall thermal stability, performance and efficiency of the fuel cell.

[75] The median lethal dose (LD50) levels for scandium chloride for rats have been determined as 755 mg/kg for intraperitoneal and 4 g/kg for oral administration.