Rare Minerals

[lovejoy0120]

Where can I obtain the likes of Francium,Caesium,Rubidium,Scandium etc. and where can they be found(in the ground)?

[Buenchico]

Francium occurs within uranium deposits so, if you want to go looking for it, you'd better get yourself a job in a uranium mine in somewhere like Australia or Canada. Even if you actually did that, it's highly unlikely that you'd ever find any francium (or know if you did) since the total deposits worldwide probably don't amount to more than half a kilogram at any one time, Also, the largest samples ever found or created had to be viewed under special microscopes and only existed for about three minutes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francium

No element higher in the atomic table than francium has ever been found in nature. If you're looking for more information about these higher elements, just look them up in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/

Chris

[jake-the-peg]

http://www.goodfellow.com

Caessium, Rubidium and Scandium about $500 for 1g

No Francium

You might like to see this guy's site. He collects elements:

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/index.html

This is what he says about Francium:

The problem is that astatine, francium, actinium, and protactinium are absolutely impossible to collect in any meaningful sense of the word. They are so fantastically radioactive and short-lived that if you had a visible quantity of any of them, you would be dead and then it would vanish before your body was cold.

[jcr1977]

You can get most of the metals you mention from the likes of Aldrich or Strem or similar chemical distributors. However it is usually a bit difficult if you are "Joe Public" to acquire such products and quite rightly so... did you ever see the OU programme on the alkali metals?

Stick to the antiques Lovejoy ;-)

BTW there is lots of Caesium and Rubidium in Mannitoba, Canada. Scandium to me suggests a lot of its minerals are found in Scandinavia.

Happy Rockhunting!

[Gef]

Are you sure Chris are did you do a typo? You even mentioned uranium in your answer.

[Buenchico]

For Gef:

I mentioned uranium for a specific reason. Francium can occur in nature but, because of its instability, it will probably only exist for about 3 minutes. The only place where it's known to occur naturally is within uranium deposits. Check the Wikipedia link for further information.

Chris

[Gef]

For Chris,

You stated, or possibly quoted from wikipedia, that "no element higher in the atomic table than Francium has ever been found in nature".

That is nonsense. First of all it is called the Periodic Table. Francium has atomic number 87. All of the elements from atomic number 88 (radium) to atomic number 92 (uranium) are found in nature. Uranium is found in sufficient quantities that we mine it and use it for nuclear reactors and bombs.