Using the spectroscopic method, which is capable of detecting one part of scandia in twenty thousand, Eberhard (loc. cit.) has found that minute quantities of scandia and yttria earths are present in almost all the commoner rocks and minerals. The minerals richest in scandium were beryl, cassiterite, wolfram, the zircon minerals, and the titanates and columbates of the ceria and yttria oxides. These results are in agreement with the observations of Sir William Crookes,[8] who has made the study of scandium especially his own. From the fact that scandium was often observed unaccompanied by any other member of the rare earth group, Eberhard rather favours Urbain’s conclusion[9] that scandium may not be a member of the rare earth family. Spectroscopic examination has also shown the existence of some of the rare earth elements in the sun and stars (see Europium, [p. 189]).
[8] Phil. Trans. 1910, A, 210, 359.
[9] See under [Scandium] in [Pt. II].
In view of this extraordinarily wide distribution of the rare earths in the mineral world, it is but natural that they should be found also in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Tschernik[10] found 10 per cent. of rare earths in the ash of a coal from Kutais, in the Caucasus, and smaller quantities have been found in the ashes of various plants; members of the group have also been identified in the human body.
[10] See Abstr. in Zeitsch. Kryst. Min., 1899, 31, 513.
Apart from the general occurrence in traces throughout the mineral kingdom, the minerals in which the rare earths occur are not very common; and though of fairly wide distribution, they are found usually only in small quantities. The earliest known locality, and the most fruitful in regard to number of species, has been the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula;[11] the minerals occur in the numerous pegmatite veins traversing the granitic country-rock. The mining district round Miask, in the Ural mountains, has also long been known as a fruitful source. Other districts in Europe are the Harz and Erzgebirge, the Laacher See in Prussia, Joachimsthal in Bohemia, Dauphiné, Cornwall, etc. In the United States numerous localities are known; the chief are in the Carolinas and Georgia, Idaho, Oregon, California, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Many of the southern provinces of Brazil also furnish important sources; the famous diamond fields of Minas Geraes, Matto-Grosso, Goyaz and the surrounding provinces yield numerous species, whilst the sands along the southern coasts of Bahia are rich in monazite, and form to-day the most important source of the mineral. Monazite, as well as other rare earth minerals, occurs also in South Africa. An interesting species, [plumboniobite] (q.v.), has recently been found in German East Africa. From Australia numerous occurrences are reported, whilst in Canada only a few districts are known to yield members of the group. In Asia important localities are Ceylon—the famous gem-gravels being the most accessible source—and one or two districts in Japan; monazite has been reported recently in considerable quantities near Travancore, India.[12] A more extended search will doubtless show that they occur in many other places.
[11] See Brögger, Die Mineralien der Süd-Norwegische Granit-Pegmatitgänge, Christiania, 1906.
[12] Bull. Imp. Inst., 1911, vol. ix; No. 2, p. 103.
For several reasons, the rare earth minerals[13] form a group of the highest scientific interest. In the first place, they are generally of very complex composition, more especially with regard to their rare earth content. Thus, whilst it sometimes happens that one or other of the two groups of oxides (the ceria and yttria groups) may predominate to the complete exclusion of the second, it is no uncommon thing for a species to contain almost all the elements of the rare earth family. On the other hand, it is very uncommon for as much as 50 per cent. of the rare earth content to consist of any one oxide. The usual case is that a mineral contains chiefly yttria earths with some ceria earths, or vice versâ, the two sub-groups being almost always complex mixtures of several oxides, in which occasionally one may predominate. The remarkable similarity in chemical behaviour of the rare earth elements, and the difficulty of separating them, correspond to this peculiarity in their occurrence.
[13] The phrase ‘rare earth minerals’ will be used whenever it is desired to indicate collectively those minerals of which the yttria and ceria earths form an important constituent, as contrasted to those in which only traces of these oxides occur. Such minerals may often contain titanium, zirconium, or thorium, and, for convenience, the term may be taken to include the commoner zirconium and thorium minerals, but not the commoner titanium minerals.